MEDITATIONS 



HAYWOOD J. P 



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PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 



Philosophical 
Meditations 



Talks to College Girls 

BY 

HAYWOOD J. PEARCE 

Ph.D. (Wuerzburg) 

PRESIDENT OF BRENAU COLLEGE 




BOSTON 

THE STRATFORD COMPANY 
19 17 






Copyright 1917 by 

THE STRATFORD COMPANY 

Boston, Mass. 



SEP 24 1917 



The Alpine Press, Boston 

©CI.A473651 



©ebtcatton 

TO THE STUDENTS OF BRENAU COLLEGE 

NOW SCATTERED OVER THIRTY STATES 

AND SEVERAL FOREIGN COUNTRIES 

BUT WHOSE HEARTS STILL 

BEAT TRUE TO ALMA 

MATER 



THE BRENAU IDEAL 

To find satisfaction in being rather than in 
seeming; to find joy in doing rather than in 
dreaming; to be prepared to render service, 
thereby earning the right to be served; to be 
pure in heart, vigorous in mind, discreet in 
action; to love deeply, fear nothing, hate 
never; to enjoy that freedom ivhich comes 
from knowledge of the truth; to be modestly 
conscious of the limitations of human knowl- 
edge, and serenely confident of the limitless 
reaches of human achievement — this is the 
ideal of Brenau. 



CONTENTS 



I. Being Versus Seeming 

II. Doing Versus Dreaming . 

III. The Aristocracy of Service 

IV. Emotion, Intellect and Action 
V. Love, Fear, Hate 

VI. Freedom thru the Truth . 

VII. The Limitations of Knowledge 



1 
18 
38 
54 
73 
88 
106 



CHAPTER I 

Being Versus Seeming 
"To find satisfaction in being rather than in seeming." 

However much physiologists and psychologists 
and theologians may differ from each other and 
however much each may differ among themselves in 
reference to the reality of man 's being, there is no doubt 
that for general purposes of study and discussion this 
reality can be most conveniently considered in its three- 
fold aspect, viz., body, mind and spirit. 

The subject of "Being versus Seeming" therefore, 
in its relation to man naturally divides itself into 
three parts. 

First, in relation to the body, our ideal demands 
that we find satisfaction in its being rather than its 
seeming. 

What is the supreme end in relation to the body? 
That it shall be sound, that it shall be useful, or perhaps 
I had better say usable ; that it shall be beautiful. 

Our ideal then is to have a body which is sound and 
not merely seems sound ; is usable and not merely seems 
usable; is beautiful and not merely seems beautiful. 

Health is surely one of the greatest blessings in this 
life. No one will gainsay this self evident proposition, 
and it would doubtless be very tedious to listen to argu- 
ments in support of it. But alas how utterly careless 

1 



2 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

are many of us in the observance of the simplest rules 
of health. We are very careful in the selection of a 
color which will be becoming to our complexion, and too 
careless in the selection of foods which are suited to our 
digestive organism. 

A sound body is, after all, the fundamental and 
determining factor in the development of a usable and 
a beautiful body. In our schools and in our homes we 
need to devote a good deal more time to the problem 
of hygiene and sanitation, and there will be less need 
of spending so much time in trying to teach the children 
to be useful and to be beautiful. 

Health is dependent upon the regular normal func- 
tioning of all of the organs of the body — in particular 
the respiratory, the circulatory and the digestive organs. 
If we lived in an ideal world and if we could claim a 
perfect line of ancestry we would need to give the 
question of health very little, if any, consideration. But 
unfortunately we do not live in a perfect world ; the air 
that we breathe is filled with microscopic germs which 
attack the highly sensitive lining of the mouth and nasal 
passages and sometimes invade the lungs, or it maybe 
invade the circulatory system, and tuberculosis or some 
fatal fever may be the result. Again the food which 
we must eat is infected with similar germs and the 
digestive tract, the liver, or other vital glands, become 
congested and the entire system becomes poisoned, and 
disease, suffering, incapacity and even death may ensue. 

It is also true that few, if any of us, can boast of a 
perfect ancestry. The conflict between man and the 
foes, microscopic and otherwise, in his environment has 



BEING VERSUS SEEMING 3 

been going on since the time of Adam and Eve. Some- 
times man has triumphed for a time, and again the 
forces of nature have claimed the victory, and always at 
the last, forces of decay, disease and death have claimed 
the victory over him. Such is our inheritance, and in 
some of us these tendencies to be overcome by disease 
are more marked than in others. 

Human life, therefore, is a more or less constant 
warfare against the forces of disease which are concealed 
in the air that we breathe and in the food that we eat, 
and against the tendencies within us which we inherit 
from those who have fought the fight before us. 

But, fortunately, all of our inheritance is not weak- 
ness, nor all of the forces in our environment evil. The 
fact that we exist at all is proof of the fact that in at 
least a majority of our ancestors the life giving tenden- 
cies predominated. When the reverse is true a race 
ceases to exist. The fact that I am alive, therefore, af- 
fords a basis for the belief that so far as inheritance 
is concerned there are more forces within me working 
for my health than there are against it. 

It is also true that not all of the forces in my en- 
vironment are inimical to my life. The same air which 
carries the microscopic germ which threatens my life, 
also carries the purifying oxygen and the healing ozone ; 
the same food which conceals the pestilential micro- 
organism that threatens to poison my blood, also con- 
tains the nourishing protein, the stimulating carbo- 
hydrates and medicinal elements innumerable. 

The problem therefore which we have to solve, is 
so far as possible to determine the weaknesses to which 



4 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

we are subject by inheritance, and to guard against 
them; and to learn to distinguish and to control the 
forces in our environment which tend to destroy, and, 
equally important, learn to distinguish and to utilize 
the forces in our environment which are favorable to 
our best and highest physical development. We who 
live in this enlightened age have the advantage of the 
discoveries along these lines made by our ancestors who 
have suffered and sometimes died in the attempt to make 
life more certain and more tolerable. 

In respect to the body, I think there will be no 
disagreement with the proposition that it is better to be 
sound than merely to seem sound. I doubt if any one 
who was really suffering ever derived any satisfaction 
from being told that he was looking strong and healthy. 
In respect to health there is very little opportunity for 
shamming and very little satisfaction. 

But how vastly different is it, if the subject relates 
to the use or the beauty of the body. 

Some athletes, who are not really strong or skilled, 
resort to tricks in order to appear strong or skilled ; some 
artisans are abundantly satisfied if they can deceive the 
employer and get the credit of skilled workmanship, 
when a careful investigation would show that the work 
was shoddy; even some so called artists are satisfied if 
they can execute a showy piece of music, or paint a 
showy picture and thereby convince admiring friends 
of their technical skill, when, as a matter of fact, they 
have not been willing to expend the energy nor suffer 
the infinite pains required of him who would acquire 
real technique in any field of artistic endeavor. 



BEING VERSUS SEEMING 5 

Our ideal demands that the athlete, the artisan, the 
artist, shall not find satisfaction in merely seeming, but 
shall be continually dissatisfied until by strenuous effort 
and by patient endeavor they shall attain unto real skill. 

But what shall we say of beauty ? Is it not just as 
satisfactory to seem beautiful as to be beautiful? You 
will probably answer no to that question, but would 
you go further and say: It is better to be homely than 
to seem beautiful? 

When we reach the realm of aesthetics our problem 
becomes more difficult. Here, in the first place it is not 
so easy to distinguish the sham from the genuine ; and in 
the second place, ambition and striving can accomplish 
relatively little. 

I would like to view this problem for the moment at 
least, not as an individual problem of mine and yours; 
but as a problem of society, and more particularly of 
the feminine portion of society. 

I suggest limiting the problem to the feminine por- 
tion of society, because the problem does not really exist 
any longer for the masculine portion. A man is usually 
satisfied to be taken at his face value so far as looks are 
concerned; and if, as is likely to be the case, this face 
value is rather low, he tries to make up for the deficiency 
by other considerations. 

Is woman wrong in placing so much value on her 
looks? If so, I suspect you will be ready to say that 
man is largely responsible for it, and being a man I 
cannot deny that men admire beautiful women. 

My own answer to this problem is twofold and con- 
sists, first, in a suggestion of the necessity of modifying 



6 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

our aesthetic ideals in relation to woman. The doll-like 
face with its paint and powder is but a poor imitation 
of the bloom of youth and health. The ruddy glow 
upon the cheek of a healthy girl far transcends in genu- 
ine beauty the painted counterfeit of the modern society 
girl, and I sometimes fear that our toleration of the 
latter is a sign of decadence in taste which is character- 
istic of an effete civilization. 

But having agreed, as I believe our best standards 
of taste will agree, that natural beauty is unrivaled by 
artificial, the second answer to the problem is a demand 
that women lead more natural lives, take the exercise 
which nature demands, breathe deeply the purifying oxy- 
gen, study the principles of dietetics and live by them, 
study the principles of psychology, especially in rela- 
tion to the emotional life, and live by them — in short 
that her life shall be so ordered from the cradle until 
the bloom of full womanhood as that natural beauty 
divinely inwrought into the form and features of the 
genuine woman shall have a chance to develop into its 
own perfect being. Then, indeed, will she find more 
satisfaction in being than any painted counterpart could 
find in seeming. 

As I have already pointed out we are to consider 
man as a triune being — body, mind and spirit. 

What shall we say of this second aspect of his be- 
ing — of mind. Is our ideal convincing in its applica- 
tion to intellectual attainments? Is it better to be wise 
than to seem wise ? 

Socrates in his Apology has set forth the fact con- 
vincingly that there is much sham wisdom in the world. 



BEING VERSUS SEEMING 7 

Indeed he reaches the rather pessimistic conclusion that 
his own wisdom consisted in his recognition of the fact 
that he knew nothing. 

This is of course an extreme view and approaches 
dangerously near to mock humility. The recognition 
of the limitations of human knowledge is a virtue. 

But within these human limitations there is large 
opportunity for the proper exercise of the human mind. 
In spite of the limitations to which it is subject, the 
human mind is the most wonderful fact in the universe 
of material things. 

The forces of nature are wonderful — the law of 
gravity which controls the formation of the planets and 
holds each in its place in the great cosmic scheme; the 
principle of life which organizes the inert dust of the 
universe into moving, feeling beings, whether worm or 
fish or reptile or mammal; the affinities of chemistry 
which combine the simple and for the most part useless 
and uninteresting elements into forms of infinite variety, 
beauty and use ; the laws of physics by which our engines 
are driven, our mountains are tunnelled, our rivers are 
bridged, our cities are lighted, our messages are car- 
ried — these and innumerable other forces and phe- 
nomena are indeed wonderful, but they are only wonder- 
ful because the mind of man has been able to foresee 
them, to grasp them, to direct and to utilize them. 

The ability to foresee an end, to discover an analogy, 
to make an inference, to draw a conclusion — these are 
the peculiar functions of the human mind, and the 
ability to do these well will determine in a large measure 



8 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

the success, and conversely the failure of any human 
individual. 

To revert again to our problem, the question is, is it 
better to be able to do these things well, or will it answer 
the purpose just to seem to be able ? 

The student who neglects the preparation of her 
lesson or examination and depends upon the help of 
a friend or upon some other fraud upon the teacher, is 
apparently satisfied merely to seem to know. The student 
who is more concerned about the grade which is given 
her than she is about the mental attainment she has 
made has failed to grasp the ideal, which I am trying 
to hold before you. 

Good grades are eminently worth while, as an evi- 
dence of real merit; but the girl who finds satisfaction 
in a grade which her merit has not earned, is either akin 
to the thief who gloats upon the gold filched from his 
neighbors ' purse, or akin to the child whose imagination 
transmutes the pebbles which it has gathered along its 
path into precious stones. 

My little girl invited me the other day to take a 
seat at a little table on the back porch, whereon she had 
spread dainties of every kind — all made out of sand. To 
humor her childish fancy, I partook in a mimic way of 
these choice viands, and she took great delight in serv- 
ing her daddy as she has seen her elders do. 

The man or woman is just as simple who offers the 
public college grades and honors and degrees, which 
have been wrought out of any substance save the subtle 
substance which we know as mentality, and which yields 
only to serious, strenuous and conscientious labor. 



BEING VERSUS SEEMING 9 

The most amusing and sometimes, alas, the most 
pitiful figure that you meet in the various haunts of 
mankind is the man or woman who is striving to seem 
intellectual. 

The man who counterfeits the coin of the republic, 
if he succeeds in passing it, gains something of value, 
which he can take with him into other regions remote 
from his victim, and there enjoy it, in a measure as 
honest men do, but alas, the man who counterfeits learn- 
ing gets no credit except from those upon whom he im- 
poses, and each day he is put to new pains to maintain 
the fraud and suffers constant dread and runs increas- 
ing risk of discovery. 

We have considered the realities of man's being in 
a progressive series. The most evident, the body, offers 
little opportunity for sham, and affords little satisfac- 
tion in merely seeming; the mind, more subtle in its 
nature, little understood as to its elements and only 
imperfectly understood as to its form, affords many op- 
portunities for sham, but little, if any real permanent 
advantages to him who seeks to appear what he is not. 

And now, finally, what shall we say of the realities, 
and the corresponding shams of the spiritual aspects of 
man's being. 

Here we have a still further refinement or sublima- 
tion of our subject. If the mind is an abstraction, more 
or less vague and indeterminate, the spirit is much more 
so; if we have difficulty in exactly defining the mind 
and in setting forth its exact function, we shall find it 
far more difficult accurately to define the spirit and 
exactly to describe its qualities. 



10 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

We shall also find that this increase in difficulty 
of delimitation and definition correspond to an increased 
subjection to the arts of the counterfeiter and difficulty 
in distinguishing the genuine from the sham. 

In spiritual matters it is preeminently true that the 
ideal woman is she who finds satisfaction in being rather 
than in seeming; but it is also true that in this sphere 
of being it is far more difficult to be and contrastingly 
easy to seem. The path of the human race from the 
dawn of creation down to the present age is strewn with 
the cast off spiritual paraphernalia, which has been used 
by spiritual mountebanks to delude and rob, harass and 
sometimes torture the weak and timid and erring sons 
of men. 

There are today, in this era of enlightenment, num- 
bers of individuals who make capital out of their spirit- 
ual pretensions, and draw their dividends thru the 
credulity of mankind. 

But the frequency and the success of the counter- 
feiter bear eloquent testimony to the worth of the real 
being. 

What is this real being — this spirituality which men 
in all ages have sought so industriously to counterfeit? 

Do we find it adequately expressed in any of the 
creeds of our churches? No. These creeds are many 
and frequently conflicting, but some of the greatest and 
best spirits of all the ages have been adherents of all 
the creeds, even the most conflicting, and some even, I 
daresay, have been adherents of none; while on the 
other hand, there is not a creed, not even our own 
Christian creed, which has not in the history of its de- 



BEING VERSUS SEEMING 11 

velopment, furnished the pretext for what every good 
man would regard now as a monstrous crime. 

Shall we find in Philosophy an adequate description 
or definition of spirit? The appeal to Philosophy were 
perhaps more futile than the appeal to theological creed. 
Philosophy has exhausted the possibilities of speculation, 
from the crude idealism of Plato to the cruder material- 
ism of modern times. 

We shall look in vain to any of the sages of any 
of the systems of religion or Philosophy for an adequate 
definition of spirit. In our own Bible we now and then 
find vague hints and analogies — "The wind bloweth 
where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; 
so is every one that is born of the spirit — " but nowhere 
do we find a serious effort made to tell us what the 
spirit of man is. 

But in spite of this lack of definition and vagueness 
of concept, you will hardly find any other one subject 
in all the realm of knowledge upon which mankind are 
so well agreed — that man is a spirit and what the real 
fruits of the spirit are. 

Any one of us would probably find it as difficult as 
I have found it to say what spirituality is, but each and 
every one instantly forms an estimate of the spiritual 
nature of every, even chance, acquaintance. The spirit 
is something none of us can define, but something which 
all of us recognize. 

Is it better then in respect to this spiritual nature 
to be than to seem — to be good, shall I say, than to 
seem good? I know of no better term to use in this 



12 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

connection than good. Whatever other qualities may 
or may not appertain to the spiritual life, it seems fairly 
well agreed that the moral factor is the most pertinent. 

The spiritual nature is essentially good or bad, noble 
or ignoble, pure or base. The good man is distinguished 
from the bad man, not by his physical perfection or 
imperfection, not by his brilliant or dull mind, but by 
these subtle qualities which relate to the ultimate being 
which we call spirit. 

In respect to these shall we say it is better to be 
than to seem? Surely the world is agreed that there is 
no character so utterly contemptible as the hypocrite — 
as the character who sets himself up to be good when in 
the depths of his soul he is evil. 

Is everyone contemptible then who does not lay 
bare before the world the weakness of his spirit? Is a 
man a hypocrite who goes to church on Sunday and 
perchance hated his enemy on Saturday? Is the girl a 
hypocrite who takes part in the Y. W. C. A. meetings 
today and possibly cheated in her examinations yester- 
day? Possibly so; possibly not. 

If going to church or taking part in the Y. W. C. A. 
meeting are for the purpose of creating the impression 
that one is something that he is not, such attendance is 
an evidence of hypocrisy and such a person is satisfied 
with mere seeming. If on the other hand the erring 
church goer and the dishonest student recognize the 
spiritual value of the church and the Y. W. C. A., and 
if in spite of their weakness and errors and wickedness, 
they are yearning for a higher life and seeking to be 
spiritual and not merely seem so, there is no taint of 



BEING VERSUS SEEMING 13 

hypocrisy in the religious attitude, but on the contrary, 
there is evidence of a spiritual life and promise of better 
things. 

If only perfect beings and hypocrites could attend 
church, our churches would either be empty or full of 
hypocrites. But fortunately perfection is not prescribed 
as a condition either of church attendance or of church 
membership ; nor is it prescribed as a condition of spirit- 
ual goodness. 

Again spiritual goodness is not determined by ex- 
ternal standards of conduct. We are prone to apply 
these standards and it is for this reason that sham is so 
easy. A certain social group sets up this or that 
standard, enumerates its "thou shalts" and multiplies 
its "thou shalt nots"; and along comes any number of 
hypocrites, who exclaim "behold we fast so many days 
in the week, we give tithes, we do not oppress our neigh- 
bor, we are of the elect." No one has exposed this type 
of hypocrisy more mercilessly and successfully than did 
Jesus of Nazareth. Said he, in that fearful arraignment, 
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for 
you pay tithe of mint, and anise and cummin and have 
omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, 
mercy and faith." 

The merely casual reader of the Bible and of secular 
history may readily see that almost every possible ex- 
ternal standard of conduct, has been accepted as right 
at some times and under some circumstances. These 
external standards are not in any event to be regarded 
as trivial considerations. Some of the most practical 
issues of life depend upon them, but in its last analysis 



14 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

the spiritual nature of our being does not depend upon 
them. 

Measured merely by external standards some of the 
most contemptible spirits I have known would be ranked 
as saints of the highest order; and measured by the 
same standard some of the choicest spirits of all the ages 
would take rank with the meanest criminals. 

I have had some opportunity for personal contact 
with some of the unfortunate beings who, because of 
nonconformity to external standards, have been out- 
lawed by society and are known as our criminal classes. 
For the majority of these, little needs to be said. Their 
criminal conduct has been an expression of a depraved 
spirit, and they richly deserve all they get and more. 
But frequently you will find in our prisons and peniten- 
tiaries spirits that are beautiful and good. 

I have a farm in Georgia on which are living fifty 
or more negroes. The best negro on that place, in my 
opinion, now occupies a murderer's cell in the Muscogee 
County jail. If he were free and on the farm and I 
were in trouble of any sort there, I would turn to him 
for help with greater confidence than to any other negro 
on the place. 

Was he then justified in slaying his fellow man ? I 
do not think so. He is as untutored as a savage, as 
simple as a child. He has never been on a train but 
once in his life and then to ride only a few miles; he 
has never been more than twenty-five miles from the 
place where he was born. He has barely learned to 
write his name, but he has never read a book in his life, 
and knows nothing more of what has happened in the 



BEING VERSUS SEEMING 15 

ages that are passed and is happening today than he has 
picked up from the chance conversations of his associates 
and the sermons of the preachers, who for the most part 
are as ignorant as he is. 

His crime? He got into a dispute with another 
negro about some whiskey, became incensed at some vitu- 
perative remark and shot him dead in his tracks. Wrong 
conduct? Yes. Bad negro? No. I would sooner risk 
my purse or my life or even my honor in his hands than 
in the hands of any other negro I know. 

How do I account for this confidence in a known 
criminal? By reason of the fact that I believe I know 
the man's spirit. We all have a subtle sense which en- 
ables us to distinguish between the good and bad people 
we meet. A child can do it, and to determine the real 
spirit of a man I had rather trust the intuition of an 
unsophisticated child than all the codes of law and ethics 
in the universe. 

I had rather have a soul within me which inspires 
the confidence and esteem of my fellow men — I had 
rather be good than merely seem to be good when meas- 
ured by any conventional standards whatsoever. 

What then is the characteristic goodness of this 
spiritual being? It is its attitude towards the universal 
spirit of the creation, of which it is a part, and as the 
individual conceives or knows it. If a human spirit is 
in harmony with the Universal Spirit as he understands 
it, he is good. Such a spirit has been born again. 

In conclusion I suspect that I need to guard against 
two misapprehensions which may have arisen from my 
argument. 



16 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

First, is sham so despicable and is reality so desir- 
able as to require that I confess and expose to the world 
all my physical deformities and mental ignorance and 
spiritual infirmities? 

On the contrary, it is a mark of virtue to hide your 
deformities, to conceal your ignorance and to throw the 
mantle of charity over your own sins, as well as those 
of your neighbor, if you can. 

The man who obtrudes his physical deformities upon 
the public is a boor ; the man who parades his ignorance 
is a fool; and the man who glories in his spiritual in- 
firmities is sometimes a fanatic and more often a hypo- 
crite. 

The ideal which I am trying to hold before you is 
not the negative one of avoiding sham, however corr- 
mendable that may be if properly understood, but it is 
the positive one of seeking after the real. 

The second misapprehension, which I fear, is con- 
cerning my attitude toward external standards of con- 
duct. I have said, with as much emphasis as I could 
command, that spiritual goodness is not determined by 
external standards of conduct. 

I would not have you, however, infer that external 
standards of conduct are negligible principles. This 
would be just as fallacious as to infer that I advocate 
Sansculotism, because I contend that spiritual goodness 
does not depend upon the clothes which we wear. 

As a matter of fact external standards of conduct 
are just as necessary to a well ordered social system as 
clothes are to a decent social gathering, and woe be to 
that individual who fails to measure up to these standards 



BEING VERSUS SEEMING 17 

in his attitude toward society; or who fails to conform 
to the conventional styles of the social gathering in which 
he mingles. 

May I finally sum up the whole matter in a few 
words ? 

To find satisfaction in being a sound, efficient and 
beautiful physical organism; in being an alert, sensitive, 
perceiving, intellectual creature, in being a good, noble 
spiritual unity, this is the ideal I have tried to hold 
before you. 



CHAPTER II 

Doing Versus Dreaming 

"To find joy in doing rather than in dreaming. " 

Movement is the supreme law of the universe. 
Scripture records the beginning of all things with 
the statement that the Spirit of God moved upon the face 
of the waters. And science attempts to describe the 
operation of the mysterious forces of nature, whereby 
the chaotic mass of atoms unite to form stars and planets 
and systems, driven hither and thither through the limit- 
less reaches of space, undergoing vast cosmic processes of 
growth and decay, tending toward we know not what 
ultimate expression of their being. 

Within the circular limits of our own little world, 
animal life, beginning with the simple unicellular organ- 
ism of the amoeba and extending through all its forms, 
invertebrate and vertebrate, even to its present highest 
expression in the being of man, is characterized and con- 
trolled by the law of movement. Movement means life ; 
incapacity for movement means death. 

Degree and facility of movement determine the posi- 
tion of any animal in the scale of being. Simple expan- 
sion for the ingestion of food and contraction for the 
elimination of waste constitute the capacity for move- 
ment of the lowest orders of life, and every degree in the 
evolution of life is characterized by some new capacity 

18 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 19 

for movement by which the creature adapts itself to 
the conditions of its environment and makes use of these 
for its own growth and well being. 

Just as marked differences in the degree and facility 
of movement characterize the development of man from 
his primitive state as an inhabitant of the caves and 
forests of earth to his present condition as a citizen of 
states and empires and a dweller in mansions of his own 
building. 

It may be well doubted if primitive man could have 
chiseled a Venus de Milo, or threaded a needle, or ridden 
a bicycle, or played a piano, even if the example and 
the means had been furnished him. The delicate move- 
ments which are requisite for these and a thousand other 
similar activities of modern man were not made possible 
in a day. They are the resultants of thousands of ef- 
forts which were less accurate and less successful, not 
only in one individual, but in generations and races of 
men. 

The progressive development of man in this matter 
of movement, in the finer and more delicate adjustment 
of his powers of movement, in the modification of and in 
the adjustment to his environment are shown by a con- 
sideration of the modern so called "Wonders of the 
World" as compared with the ancient "Wonders of the 
World." 

The ancient "Wonders of the World," as you may 
recall, were: 

1. The Walls of Babylon 

2. The Statue of Venus by Phydias at Olympia 



20 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

3. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon 

4. The Colossus at Rhodes 

5. The Pyramids of Egypt 

6. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus 

7. The Temple of Artemis (or Diana) at Ephesus 

Now compare these with the modern seven wonders 
of the world, and notice the difference in the kind of 
skill of movement which has been required for their 
development. 

Recently one thousand of the most noted scientists 
of the world have been requested to name what in their 
opinion constitute the seven wonders of the modern 
world. Of course there were differences of opinion, but 
the consensus of opinion has resulted in the following 
list: 

1. Wireless telegraphy 

2. The Telephone 

3. The Spectroscope 

4. The Airplane 

5. Anaesthesia 

6. The Roentgen or X-ray 

7. The Panama Canal 

It will be noted that only one of these, viz., the 
Panama Canal, belongs to even what might be called 
the same class as the ancient wonders. 

The ancient wonders of the world required for their 
erection great strength, the exercise of the grosser powers 
of man, the exercise of the muscles involved in the use 
of the chisel, the hammer, and in moving great masses 
of material. 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 21 

The modern wonders of the world have required 
for their development, not great strength, but great ac- 
curacy; not the exercise of brawn and muscle, but ex- 
treme delicacy of touch, the ability to detect minute dif- 
ferences and to adjust delicate apparatus to respond to 
these differences; not the moving of ponderous masses 
of matter, but the manipulation of the imponderable 
atoms of the air and of the even finer particles of the 
ether, the existence of which the ancient world did not 
even know. 

To be sure, this difference in knowledge may be said 
to account for the development of the new wonders also. 
But in the last analysis man is indebted for his knowl- 
edge to his increased facility in movement. Knowledge 
of the air and of the ether have been made possible by 
man's ability to construct delicate pieces of apparatus 
and even more to his ability to handle this apparatus 
by means of the most delicate and accurate movement. 

The Ancient "Wonders of the World, with the ex- 
ception of the Pyramids, have either been entirely lost 
sight of or exist as ruins and relics ; the modern wonders, 
with a single exception, do not depend for their per- 
petuity upon great masses of material which are sub- 
ject to the laws of disintegration and decay. 

The modern world today can boast of structures and 
works of art which are more stupendous, more ornate, 
more enduring than any of the wonders of the ancient, 
but they are no longer wonders of the world. Great 
structures have become commonplace. Bigness of con- 
struction means to us merely the multiplication of ma- 
chinery and the grosser powers of man. 



22 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

But after all of the great structures of the earth 
have yielded to the relentless tooth of time and crumbled 
into dust, the wonders of the air and the ether, which are 
the latest product of man, will still be new and useful. 

Now in our admiration of these wonders themselves, 
let us not lose sight of the marvelous accuracy of muscu- 
lar adjustment, which was involved in making and in 
manipulating the apparatus, by means of which these 
wonders are ours. 

In building any or all of the old wonders, only a 
comparatively small number of the grosser powers of 
movement were involved ; in the construction of the new 
wonders it is the more delicate and complicated processes 
of movement which have been called into action. 

The progress of the race from barbarism to modern 
civilization has not been merely an advance in knowledge, 
but equally an increase in facility of movement, whereby 
man has been able to adjust himself to his complicated 
environment. 

This whole matter of facility of movement is so in- 
timately associated with mental growth, it may be well 
to consider its physiological or neurological basis. 

The ability to make a certain movement to meet cer- 
tain conditions depends upon the establishment in the 
central nervous system of a coordination between the 
afferent and the efferent neurones, — constituting the so- 
called sensori-motor arc. 

The afferent neurones are the nerve fibres which 
extend from the various sense organs to the central nerv- 
ous system composed of spinal cord and the brain; the 
efferent neurones are the nerve fibres which extend from 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 23 

the central nervous system to the muscles, and when ener- 
vated cause the muscle to contract and the appropriate 
movement to take place. 

Whenever a sense organ is stimulated a current pas- 
ses along the afferent neurones to the brain and we are 
said to experience a sensation. But that is not all. We 
not only experience a sensation but, normally, the cur- 
rent is switched over to the efferent system and the cur- 
rent travels outward to some muscle which contracts and 
produces a movement which is more or less appropriate 
response to the sensory stimulus which was given. 

The well known fundamental law of man's being is 
this : There is no permanent impression which does not 
find its appropriate expression, and conversely, there 
is no expression which is not based immediately or re- 
motely upon some impression. 

Man, psychically considered, is a complicated bundle 
of sensori-motor-arcs with sensation (or impression) at 
one end of the arc and movement (or expression) at the 
other end. The whole business of the central nervous 
system is to establish proper coordination between these 
two functions of his being — that is, between his ability 
to receive impressions and his ability to express himself. 

Some of these coordinations between sensory impres- 
sion and muscular movement become fixed and mechan- 
ical and are termed reflexes and instincts, as for example 
the batting of the eye when an object comes too close to 
it, or the picking at grains of food by the new born chick 
as soon as it sees the food. 

In these and innumerable similar instances the vis- 
ual stimulus is connected by means of the afferent neu 



24 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

rone with the central nervous system and there mechan- 
ically switched over to the efferent neurones and the re- 
sponse is a movement of the appropriate muscles. 

Such coordinations have become established in the 
early history of the race and are inherited and become 
as mechanical as the operation of the valves of an engine. 

Many coordinations are not so mechanically estab- 
lished but tendencies toward their establishment are in- 
herited; for example certain peculiar attitudes of the 
body, the gait in walking, the tone of voice in speaking 
and many similar expressions of one's individuality are 
inherited. Possibly what we know as talent, e. g. for 
music, painting and the like, may be inherited. That 
is we may inherit the ability to coordinate certain muscu- 
lar movements with certain sensory impressions, or with 
ideals built up out of sensory impressions — and that is 
what talent is. 

These instincts and reflexes, however, may as a rule 
be modified to meet new conditions in environment. 

As we go higher in the scale of evolution the number 
of unmodifiable reflexes and instincts decreases, but the 
number of modifiable instincts increases. That is, the 
lower animals are born with the ability to do more things 
than man can do ; but man is born with the capacity to 
learn to do a vast number more than any animal can 
ever learn to do. 

It will be seen, therefore, that the whole mechanism 
of man's being is constructed with a view to its adapta- 
tion to an ever changing, moving environment. 

There is even some evidence to support the theory 
that thought itself involves the enervation of some por- 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 25 

tion of the muscular system, the outward evidence of 
the movement being concealed either by inhibition or the 
contraction of opposing sets of muscles. Thought ac- 
cording to this theory is "repressed action." 

Whether this theory be justified or not, it is certainly 
true that the most significant fact in the practical econo- 
my of man's nature is his ability by means of movement, 
of action, to adjust himself to his environment and there- 
by utilize the forces operative in the universe for his 
own well being. 

^P ^P W W 

Man, therefore, finds his completest and surest joy 
in a life of action, of movement, of doing, because it is 
in harmony with the fundamental law of his being and 
of the universe of which he himself is a part. 

But in the second place the life of action is not only 
in harmony with the laws of the universe, but is also 
essential to man's material well being. 

The material well being of any creature, and more 
especially of man, depends upon (1) food for nourish- 
ment, and (2) a suitable habitation. 

The wisdom of the Creator is manifest in the fact 
that under normal conditions, the proper exercise of the 
creatures' powers is guaranteed or made necessary by 
the impulse to seek food and provide a suitable habita- 
tion; and this necessity is one of the surest indications 
that the all-wise Creator intends that man shall be sub- 
ject to the same law which obtains throughout the uni- 
verse — the law of movement, of action. 

It has been well said that the existence of a need or 



26 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

desire is sufficient evidence of the existence of the means 
of satisfying such a desire or need. 

It is inconceivable that any creature, animal or hu- 
man, can desire anything which it does not possess the 
means of acquiring. This statement, however, must be 
understood as applying to the class rather than to the 
individual members of the class. 

It must be admitted that many an individual feels 
a need, which is never satisfied, so far as he is concerned. 

The complexity of human life is such that we must 
seek the solution of the great problems affecting human 
life, not in the individual only, but in the race. The 
needs which are not satisfied in the lives of the present 
generation will find their satisfaction in the lives of 
some future generation. The need for communicating 
with far distant friends was doubtless experienced by 
millions of human beings before it was satisfied in the 
person of Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the 
telephone and revealed the means whereby millions of 
beings today are having this need satisfied; millions of 
beings doubtless have felt the need of relief from pain in 
surgical operations before it was satisfied by anaesthesia 
as a result of the experiments by Dr. Crawford Long 
within twenty miles of this place ; millions of beings have 
also felt the need of looking thru opaque objects, such 
as arms and legs which may have been broken or shot to 
pieces in battle, but this need was not satisfied until 
Roentgen in his laboratory at Wuerzburg, by a series 
of most delicate adjustments, succeeded in isolating the 
so-called X- or Roentgen rays which, if properly directed, 
reveal to the eye of man much which is else invisible. 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 27 

And so with all the modern wonders and the in- 
numerable inventions which satisfy the needs of man and 
make life in this age, as compared with any other, a 
series of miracles. 

No man has attained unto a proper conception of 
his obligations and his opportunities until he realizes 
the fact that he is a simple unit in a great cosmic scheme. 
His obligations are not limited by his individual needs, 
nor the needs of his family, nor even by the needs of 
his generation ; but they are fulfilled only when he con- 
tributes his mite toward the satisfaction of the great 
ultimate needs of the race, which the individual now 
but dimly recognizes, and which will find their full re- 
cognition and satisfaction in the ages which open out 
before us. 

We give Bell and Long and Roentgen the credit 
for their several discoveries, but the millions of beings 
who preceded them and felt these needs contributed 
a part, some greater and some less, toward the final 
achievement, and without their contribution Bell and 
Long and Roentgen would have been as impotent as 
millions who preceded them. 

The needs of humanity today, and the prospective 
needs of the generations which are to follow, are suffi- 
cient to keep busily occupied in some constructive activ- 
ity every individual on the face of the globe. The 
physical suffering on the globe today, the cry for bread 
and raiment and shelter which goes up from thousands 
in our own land, and many more thousands in other 
lands, is directly attributable to the negligence and sloth 



28 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

of individuals in our own generation and in the genera- 
tions which have preceded us. 

If all the individuals in all the generations of the 
past had been true and faithful and energetic, if they 
had contributed their part, the earth today would be 
a garden; there would be no want of bread and clothing 
and shelter, and disease would probably be unknown. 
The drones of humanity have retarded the proper pro- 
gress of the race perhaps a thousand years, and the 
drones are not all dead yet. 

"What the world needs today is a race of men and 
women who are producers — who will seize the op- 
portunities offered by the rich storehouse of nature 
which contains enough and more than enough to feed 
and clothe and provide every comfort for every human 
creature on the face of the earth and as many more, 
but which opens only to him who uses the energies with 
which the same beneficent nature has endowed him. 

Man, therefore, finds his surest joy in a life of ac- 
tion because this is essential to his material well being, 
in providing food and shelter and raiment for his own 
use and for the use of the race. 

Again, in the third place, the life of action is es- 
sential to satisfy the longing which every man feels to 
perpetuate himself — for immortality. 

Our religion teaches us that it is not all of life to 
live, nor all of death to die ; and by faith we seek after 
a life which is unmeasured by the flight of years. We 
feel the need of such a life and if the doctrine of 
"needs" which I have previously set forth is true, there 
must be some provision for this need in the plans of 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 29 

the great Creator. You will do well to cling to this 
faith, for it will prove a stimulus to you in the hey day 
of your youth and strength and a comfort in your old 
age and weakness. 

But it is not to that species of immortality which I 
wish to direct your attention at this time. 

It is indeed a poor specimen of humanity who does 
not feel the desire and even the need of immortality in 
this world. We would like to leave some evidence of 
our existence after we are gone. 

If this feeling within us could be separated from its 
purely selfish aspect it would be a very noble feeling. 
It were well if we could get rid of the idea of the per- 
petuation of mere names. Bell and Long and Roentgen 
as mere names amount to nothing. There are thousands 
of individuals who have borne these names and thousands 
more will bear them and they derive no glory because 
of the names. 

The names are only a convenient memory device 
for perpetuating their deeds. 

The kind of unselfish immortality which I am ex- 
tolling is that which is satisfied with the enduring crea- 
tion and is not primarily concerned about the personal 
credit that attaches to it. If it were necessary to attach 
some person's name to every step which has been made 
in human progress, our encyclopedias could never be 
made large enough. Rightly considered the real heroes 
of humanity are the unsung heroes. It is easy to be a 
hero if you know your praises are to be heralded 
throughout the ages, but the highest type of creator, 
so far as humanity is concerned, is he who finds most 



30 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

satisfaction and joy in his creation, and is least con- 
cerned with the personal credit he gets for it. 

Taking then this view of immortality, every man is 
immortal who contributes anything which endures to- 
ward the growth and development of the race. 

The man who builds a house perpetuates himself 
as long as his house endures and if his house contributes 
a part toward the erection of another house, or enables 
him who occupies the house to create something else, 
then the creator of the house has perpetuated himself 
even beyond the time when the house has crumbled into 
dust. 

The man who creates an idea perpetuates himself 
as long as this idea dwells in the mind of man, and if 
the idea results in the development of another idea which 
supersedes the old, that man is perpetuated in the fruits 
of his idea in untold ages. 

But the man who would perpetuate himself, whether 
with the selfish end of preserving his name, or with the 
more noble end of serving the generations which are 
yet unborn, cannot be a drone, an idler, a sluggard. The 
one unalterable condition for him is a life of activity. 

Man, therefore, finds his surest joy in a life of 
activity because it is only by such a life that he can 
project his life into the future and become one of the 
immortals. 

Having now established, I trust, the principle that 
the life of activity is a fundamental law of our being, 
that it is necessary for our material welfare, and that 
it is necessary for the gratification of the longing in- 
born within us to perpetuate ourselves beyond the limits 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 31 

of our own physical being, let lis now inquire more 
particularly into the nature of this life of action. 

In what does a life of action consist? "Who is the 
doer and who is the dreamer? 

While the emphasis has been laid in the preceding 
discussion upon the physical action, I trust that it has 
been clear that it has not been my intention to limit 
the meaning of action to physical action as opposed to 
mental action. 

I have already intimated the fact that I am inclined 
to the belief that thought involves, in the last analysis, 
the functioning of the sensori-motor arc to which I have 
referred. I do not believe a man who could not move a 
muscle, or receive a sensation, could think. But having 
contended thus much for the sake of a theory, I am 
free to admit that for all practical purposes thought and 
physical action are vastly different matters, however 
much the one may be involved in and presuppose the 
other. 

The question then becomes this: Is the thinker a 
doer or a dreamer? Without hesitation, I am sure you 
will agree that the real thinker is a doer in the best 
and highest sense of the term. 

But in order to establish this, we must correct a cur- 
rent misconception of dreaming on the one hand and 
delimit the meaning of thinking on the other. 

It is not an uncommon occurrence to hear some 
flowery speaker eulogize the dreamer in extravagant 
terms. We have been told, not infrequently, that it is 
the dreamer who founds empires ; that it is the dreamer 
who builds the great structures of Earth; that it is the 



32 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

dreamer who creates the great works of art; and that 
it is the dreamer who reveals the great secrets of modern 
science and invention. 

If this were true then the dreamer would be the 
doer par excellence and the contrast in our ideal be- 
tween the "doer" and the "dreamer" would be mean- 
ingless and inane. 

But this conception of the dreamer is not a true 
conception and such praise as is given him arises from 
a confusion, which is not uncommon, between "dream- 
ing" and "thinking." 

"Dreaming" is similar to "thinking" in that both 
consist of a succession of ideas passing through the mind. 

Dreaming is very different from thinking in that 
the former, whether one is awake or sleeping, consists 
of an unorganized, incoherent succession of one idea 
after another, without any effort on the part of the 
dreamer to bring the ideas into being, and resulting in 
no effort on the part of the dreamer to give expression 
in any way to the ideas ; while, on the other hand, think- 
ing consists of an organized, coherent succession of ideas, 
oftentimes brought into being by the extremest effort 
of which man is capable, and resulting sooner or later 
in some expression either in a modification of the at- 
titude of the thinker to his, environment, or in an overt 
attempt to modify his environment in accordance with 
his thinking. 

The doer shares his visions with the dreamer, but 
the vision of the doer inspires to action by which the 
vision becomes a reality; whereas the vision of the 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 33 

dreamer is to him the only reality, and finds no outward 
expression in his life. 

The vision of the doer is based upon some well or- 
ganized purpose and expresses itself in some definite 
act. The vision of the dreamer is based upon the state 
of the digestion, the condition of the circulatory system, 
the chance happenings of the day, and its motive ele- 
ments are likely to be so feeble that no overt action 
follows. 

If this view of dreaming and thinking is accepted, 
it is clear that thinking is the highest form of activity 
of which man is capable, for it involves the action of 
the most complicated and delicate part of his being, 
and at the same time furnishes the inspiration for every 
other form of activity of which he is capable. 

The life of action, therefore, is not confined to 
physical action merely, but may involve as its chief form 
some mental occupation, which in so far as strenuous 
effort is concerned, may far exceed the labor of the 
artisan or the ploughman. There is as much difference 
between the mental worker and the dreamer as there is 
between the day laborer and the dreamer; and more- 
over, the habit of dreaming is quite as frequently an 
affliction of the laboring classes as it is of the thinking 
classes. 

Has the habit of dreaming any peculiar dangers 
for women? I think it has. 

Woman is at the same time the most favored and 
oftentimes the most oppressed creature which inhabits 
this planet. 

Man in all ages of history has been disposed to 



34 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

treat her either as a doll or a drudge. She is too 
frequently either pampered and petted and surrounded 
with the allurements of ease and temptations to in- 
dolence, or made the bearer of burdens and fettered 
with chains which are worse than slavery until her en- 
ergies are dissipated and her spirit is broken. 

In either case the opportunities for expression of 
the highest elements of her being are so circumscribed 
and limited that she is liable to fall into the habit of 
dreaming — of allowing the ideas which pass through 
her mind to flow on without organization or purpose, 
and thus to spend her days in vague longings after the 
unattainable. 

I am glad that a new day for woman is already 
dawning — a day in which woman is to be a copartner 
with man in the great business of life. Under this new 
order of things, with unshackled mind and unfettered 
spirit she will contribute her share toward the solution 
of the great problems of life and of civilization. Under 
this new order she will still be the mother of the race 
and the joy and ornament of the home, but she will not, 
if fortune places wealth at her command, spend this 
wealth in a life of sensuous ease and pleasure, but she 
will use it for making home, not only a place to eat and 
sleep in, but a temple wherein the inspiration to a noble 
life shall rise as sweet incense from a sacred altar; and 
if perchance her lot be cast with one whose only fortune 
is a strong arm and a brave heart, she will join her 
strength and energy with his, and, under the blessing 
of a civilization which has lightened the burdens of the 
homekeeper by the inventions of science and the perfec- 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 35 

tion of arts, she will contribute her share as a producer 
of wealth. 

But more than this, under this new order, woman 
will also be independent of man. I am not one of those 
who believe that woman's only place is a keeper of the 
home and her only function that of a mother. It were 
just as true to contend that man's only place is as 
builder of a home and his only function that of a father. 

Happy, indeed, is that man or that woman to 
whom are given the joy of home-making and home- 
building, but it is a false and too limited view of the 
function of the race which has its end in a propagation 
of the species. 

There have been and are today noble men and 
women, useful in their day and generation, whose in- 
fluence will be felt in all generations and whose memories 
will linger like a hallowed incense in the great cathedral 
of time, who have never known the joys of fatherhood 
and motherhood. 

The complexities of life and of society are such that 
it is not possible and perhaps not best for all men and 
women to perform the same function. It is given to 
some to spin and some to weave; it is given to some to 
plant and some to gather; it is given to some to ride 
and some to walk; it is the lot of some to enjoy great 
affluence and of others to eat their daily bread by the 
sweat of the brow ; some are called to preach and others 
to hear; some are permitted to be progenitors of the 
race and others are charged with its purification, its 
education, its elevation. 

In such a complex social program, woman has an 



36 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

increasingly large and varied and useful part. As we 
look down the long procession of the ages of history, the 
most hopeful evidence of the progress of the race is the 
gradual change in the status of woman. The time was 
when the woman who could not or would not be wife 
was necessarily beast or drone; the time is today when 
she may take part, in a measure, with man in practically 
all of the activities which are possible to human kind; 
the time will soon be when she will come into her right- 
ful inheritance, and share the responsibilities as well 
as enjoy the benefits of a civilization which calls for the 
development of all of the powers of body, mind and soul 
of all of the individuals who compose it. 

I shall not venture to prophesy what the exact status 
of woman will be in this dawning era. For my part 
I hope she will not be less beautiful, nor less refined, nor 
less feminine, but I confidently hope that the influences 
and limitations which have restricted her activity and 
made her too frequently a dreamer, will be removed, and 
that she will take her place, not, indeed, identical with 
man, but coequal with him, and fulfill her function as 
a member of the human species — that of a doer rather 
than a dreamer. 

And, finally, let us sum up the argument which has 
been presented for the "doer versus the dreamer. " 

Man is the most complicated mechanism in a uni 
verse of moving things. His nature partakes of the 
nature of the universe of which he is a part, and every 
natural impulse of his being calls for action; to stifle 
these impulses would mean physical and mental and 
spiritual death. No man will nor can entirely stifle 



DOING VERSUS DREAMING 37 

them, but in greater or lesser degrees many men are 
stifling them and suffering the consequences in diseased 
bodies, enfeebled minds and in atrophy of the spiritual 
nature. 

Man is protected against the danger of neglecting 
these natural impulses, in a measure, by the fact that his 
material being requires for his comfort and health cer- 
tain food and raiment and shelter, and normally these 
pressing needs require the exercise of appropriate 
powers. 

Man is further protected against the dangers of in- 
action and sloth by the desire to perpetuate himself in 
the lives of his contemporaries and in the lives of the 
generations of men who are yet to be. 

The foundation of the appeal for woman's rights 
is the fact that under the present organization of society 
she is forced too frequently to be a dreamer; and the 
highest and dearest right which she can claim is the 
right to take her place by the side of man as a doer 
in a world which is essentially a world of activity. 



CHAPTER III 

The Aristocracy of Service 

"To be prepared to render service, thereby earning the right 
to be served. ?? 

If there were only one human being upon the face of 
the earth, he could have no obligations except to him- 
self. But just as soon as two human beings begin to 
exist together, it becomes necessary for the welfare of 
both that each shall assume certain obligations to the 
other ; and the more numerous human beings become, the 
more complicated and serious become the obligations of 
each to the other. 

Society is based upon a tacit compact between the 
individuals which compose it. Every individual who 
reaches the age of discretion must, more or less consci- 
ously, become a party to this compact, or else become 
an outlaw. 

As society has developed, the obligations of its mem- 
bers have been expressed, more or less imperfectly, in 
systems of laws, and in codes of ethics. These codes 
are the formal expression of this compact between the 
members of society, in so far as they have been able to 
agree upon a statement of it. 

But back of these codes of law and of ethics, there 
lies deeper in the subconsciousness of the race, a funda- 
mental principle of social philosophy, upon which all 

38 



THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 39 

law which is permanent and all true ethics are based. 
This principle has been struggling, as it were, to attain 
to some conscious expression, and now and then soci- 
ologists or economists, or religionists or some other 
thoughtful men have been able to catch more or less 
fleeting visions of its meaning, and thus ethics and law 
have been developed. 

Jesus of Nazareth probably had this principle in 
view when he framed that rule of conduct which would 
solve all social and governmental problems if it were 
universally adopted, and which is known as the ' ' Golden 
rule"; "Do unto others as you would have them do unto 
you." 

Thomas Jefferson, who, next to Jesus of Nazareth, 
gave expression to the most epoch making statements in 
human history, saw this same principle probably from a 
slightly different standpoint, when he wrote in the 
"Declaration of Independence" these words: "All men 
are born free and equal." 

The Golden rule and the Declaration of Independ- 
ence are based upon the same fundamental principle of 
social philosophy, and neither the statement of Jesus 
nor of Thomas Jefferson can be adequately understood, 
until this fundamental principle is fully explained. 

In this discussion I shall not appeal to the authority 
of revelation nor seek to find the proof of my thesis in 
the sanctions of religion. These are unequivocal and 
convincing enough for any one who can see with the eye 
of faith. But one of the highest and most conclusive 
proofs of the truth of revealed religion is the fact that 
its teachings concerning the obligations which grow out 



40 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

of human relationships coincide with the conclusions of 
reason. So far as the brotherhood of man is concerned, 
religion and philosophy agree ; it is only with reference 
to the fatherhood of God that revelation transcends 
philosophy. 

This fundamental principle of social philosophy to 
which I have referred grows out of two facts — first, the 
nature of man and second, the nature of the world, the 
environment, in which he finds himself. 

The young of the human species is the most helpless 
creature on the earth. 

A human infant could not exist a week without the 
protection and nourishment provided by others of its 
own species. And man never outgrows his dependence 
upon his fellowmen. 

The evidences of history support the conclusions of 
reason that even the most primitive men found it neces- 
sary to unite themselves into groups in order to over- 
come the unfavorable conditions of environment, to pro- 
tect themselves against the destructive forces of nature 
and of the animal kingdom, and to provide themselves 
with the necessary sustenance. 

The increasing numbers of men and the complexity 
of civilization has resulted in a still greater dependence 
of each individual upon others. Indeed it may be said 
that the civilization of the world has increased in the 
same proportion as the number of individuals upon 
which each individual is dependent. 

In the early dawn of civilization the welfare of any 
individual depended merely upon those in his immediate 



THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 41 

environment — upon the members of the family, or at 
most upon a few neighbors. 

In our modern civilization consider the difference. 
The light by which you study at night is brought from a 
waterfall fifteen miles away, over a complicated system 
of wires. In constructing this waterfall, in making 
these wires and the electrical machinery which changes 
the force of the waterfall into light there have been en- 
gaged, literally, thousands of men, some of them the most 
gifted men of all the ages. Even now, with the machin- 
ery in place, and the men who made it engaged on other 
tasks, there are yet other hundreds of men who are en- 
gaged in looking after the machinery, in keeping the 
wires in order, in supplying the little glass bulbs which 
are necessary, and in numerous other details which I 
need not mention. Upon all of these you are dependent 
for the light by which you study. They are your 
servants. 

Your great great grandmother, if she studied at all, 
did so by the light of a lightwood knot which your great 
great grandfather cut in the forest back of the house. 

And so I might name the heat which warms you, the 
clothing which you wear, the dinner which you eat, the 
books which you study, the train which brought you here, 
and the engine which pulled it, the money which paid 
your passage and is paying your daily expenses, and so 
it would be easy to show how not one, not a hundred, but 
literally thousands of men and women have contributed 
a share in making it possible for you to enjoy the ad- 
vantages which are yours today. 

What a wonderful heritage is ours! What a great 



42 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

privilege it is to live in this glorious age and in this glori- 
ous republic ! No queen in the olden days had so many 
people to serve her as has any one of you. The Queen 
of Sheba had hundreds of slaves and thousands of sub- 
jects to do her bidding, but her power was limited to her 
own kingdom or perhaps extended in a very minor 
degree to some contiguous kingdom ; but there is no part 
of the civilized world which does not pay some tribute 
or offer some service to the American woman. Silks 
from China, spices from Arabia, diamonds from Africa, 
coffee from South America, furs from the far north, 
coral from the far South, adornment of every kind from 
the East and food from the granaries of the West. 

But more and better than this, all of the agencies 
of a complicated government, and the combinations of 
capital and labor are pledged and ready to do your bid- 
ding. The experience of all the past, and the surplus 
energy stored up as wealth, as well as all of the forces 
which are generated in the men of today are being ex- 
pended for your comfort and pleasure. 

You can step into an adjoining office and thru the 
help of Alexander Graham Bell and several thousand 
men who have labored with and for him, you may call 
up a garage down town ; Henry Ford will send you one 
of his cars with the help of John D. Kockefeller's gas- 
olene, and the assistance of several other thousands of 
men who have labored with and for them. In a few 
seconds you may drive to the depot and there call to 
your service another immense vehicle, which has required 
other thousands of men to prepare for your use. In an 
hour you are transported to a great commercial center, 



THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 43 

where you may find contributions from every country 
on the face of the globe. With the aid of Henry Ford 
and Rockefeller you can go the rounds and make your 
selection, or if you know what you want, by the aid of 
Alexander Bell and his cohorts you can give your order 
and in a few minutes your choice of all these treasures 
will be laid at your feet. 

In the meantime you can rest in your apartment, 
which is ready at your command and is more elegant 
and contains more comforts than any palace the Queen 
of Sheba ever saw or could even imagine. 

But you say, in order to enjoy these benefits and 
pleasures and secure the services of men in all parts of 
the world, one must have money. Certainly, one must 
have a little money, but very little is really necessary 
if one knows how to use it. 

Admitting, however, that money is required, let us 
consider for a moment the question, ' ' What is money ? ' ' 
and i c How does one get money ? ' ' 

Money as defined in the books is a "medium of ex- 
change ; ' ' it is the means agreed upon by society whereby 
one thing of value may be exchanged for another thing 
of equal value. You get money by exchanging for it 
something of value. This something of value may be 
goods or property of some sort which you or some one up- 
on whom you are dependent earned by labor, by service 
of some kind. All property values, in the last analysis 
have originated in labor or service. Contrary to the 
teaching of some economists, I believe that the value of 
land itself originated from human labor. 

It has only been a few years since land could be 



44 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

bought within twenty-five miles of this city for fifty 
cents an acre. And in the early days entire states have 
been bartered for the price of a buffalo robe. 

Even land itself has no value until large numbers 
of men come together and its value then is fixed by the 
double standard of the labor which has been expended 
on and about it and the further opportunities which it 
may offer for useful labor. 

The point in question here, however, is the fact 
that money in the last analysis represents service. 

And the main point in this address today is this : — 
The treasures and joys and advantages of the world are 
open and ready at the command of that man or that 
woman who serves; and conversely no man or woman 
who does not or has not served has any right to the 
treasures and advantages of the world. 

This latter proposition is not so generally accepted 
as the former, and most of the strife and unhappiness in 
the world originates from its denial and the consequent 
attempt on the part of a large number of men and women 
to enjoy the advantages and treasures of the world with- 
out the rendering of adequate service in return. 

The pages of history are filled largely with the re- 
cord of the struggles of men and of nations growing out 
of this attempt to get something for nothing, or at least 
to get more than the service rendered has justified. 

The struggle for democratic government has had its 
root in this matter. The kings and queens and lords 
and ladies of the olden time claimed their sovereignty 
and privilege by right of inheritance, and for ages the 
fields of Europe ran red with the blood of those who had 



THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 45 

the temerity to deny these rights. It is the peculiar 
privilege of this glorious republic first successfully to 
establish the principle that the right of government be- 
longs to the people who are governed, and that those 
who are placed in authority derive their just powers 
from the people whom they serve, and that these powers 
and privileges continue only so long as the rulers serve 
the people 

Again, out of the conflict and strife between capi- 
tal and labor there is beginning to become clear the 
principle that the rights of capital are based purely upon 
the service which capital renders to society. It is begin- 
ning to be understood and admitted by the men of great 
wealth that they deserve the protection of society and 
the benefits which they derive from society only in so 
far as they use their great wealth for the public good, 
and that this can be done only when labor receives its 
just reward, and the laborer enjoys the benefits of society 
in proportion to the service which he renders society in 
cooperation with capital. 

Even in the smaller affairs of the individual life 
the same principle is becoming manifest. Nearly every 
state and community now has its laws against vagrancy. 
A vagrant is a man who does not work and has no visible 
means of support. Such a man is subject to arrest and 
if convicted is put to work upon the public highways. 
These laws are by no means as perfect and far reaching 
as they ought to be, but they are evidence of a growing 
consciousness in humanity of the obligation of every man 
to render some service in return for the food and other 
benefits which he enjoys as a member of society. 



46 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

Laws, as a rule, are the crystallization of public 
sentiment. It is rarely possible to make laws, and never 
possible to enforce them until the majority of the people 
in a community believe in their justice. It therefore 
follows that our laws rarely ever measure up to the 
highest ideals of the best people in a community. So it 
is with the vagrant law. Nearly everybody is agreed 
that the irresponsible man who has no property and who 
will not work, should be made to work by force if neces- 
sary. 

But the same principle which justifies this attitude 
of society toward the vagrant has a far broader applica- 
tion, which is now clearly recognized by the most 
thoughtful. 

The mere fact that under the beneficent laws of 
society it is made possible for a son to inherit property 
from his father, does not justify that son in a life of 
sensuous ease and idleness. The father was enabled 
to accumulate this property not merely by his own in- 
dustry but by the help of society — of innumerable men 
who labored with and for him, and by the protection 
afforded him by the government under which he could 
pursue his vocation in peace and safety. And so so- 
ciety has the clear right to demand of the son that he 
use the wealth, which has been earned by the father, 
in the interest of society as well as for his own benefit 
and pleasure. 

The same obligation rests upon any man who has 
acquired property in any way whatsoever. He has been 
enabled to acquire it by the help and with the coopera- 
tion of the thousands of individuals who constitute so- 



THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 47 

ciety and therefore society has the absolute right to de- 
mand that his property be used for the public good. 

The obligations of woman in this matter are rather 
peculiar, and the age in which we live is witnessing a 
very rapid and in some respects marvelous evolution 
of our ideas on this subject. 

The law against vagrancy applies, of course, to 
women as well as men, but be it said to her credit there 
are very few women who do not engage in some useful 
work unless they have some one upon whom they may de- 
pend for support. Consequently in its practical ap- 
plication the vagrant law is almost never invoked against 
a woman. 

But it is with reference to this matter of dependence 
upon men for support that our ideas concerning women 
have been undergoing such a rapid evolution. 

It was formerly considered a disgrace for a woman 
to work, and almost as much of a disgrace to be what 
was very disrespectfully termed an "old maid." 

Now, no one will question the right of any woman 
to work, however high may be her social position. A 
phase of a recent national event has passed almost un- 
noticed, which a century ago would have caused the 
world to flutter with astonishment and possibly indigna- 
tion. I refer to the elevation to the position of "first 
lady of the land" of a lovely and charming woman 
from what has been vulgarly termed the circle of trades 
people. 

It is not only an admitted right of a woman to 
work, but the idea is growing that a woman is under 



48 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

just the same obligation to render service to society as 
man is. 

The only disgrace in these modern times which at- 
taches to the "old maid" is that which attaches to the 
idle "old maid." The woman who does not choose or 
is not chosen to render service to society as a wife and 
mother is under just as much obligation to choose some 
other form of service as any man is. 

But more than this, the inventions and conveniences 
of our modern civilization which make housekeeping in 
the properly regulated home such a simple matter, have 
resulted in the placing of a large amount of time at the 
disposal of many wives and not a few mothers, and so- 
ciety is beginning to say in no uncertain terms to these, 
"What service are you rendering in return for these 
benefits?" 

The day when it was respectable and lady-like to 
spend one's time in idleness and frivolity is fast passing 
away; and the women who do so, as well as the men, 
already arouse the contempt of society and ere long 
will incur its displeasure. 

The evolution of the idea of aristocracy is a very 
interesting and a very significant study, and has im- 
portant bearing on our subject. 

The time was when the best men were the heroes of 
physical contests — men of the type of Achilles and 
Hercules. These probably constituted the first aris- 
tocracy of civilization. 

Then probably came the aristocracy of political 
power. Men who by reason of physical strength, or by 
reason of the ability to organize other men who had 



THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 49 

physical strength, and thereby acquired dominion over 
great masses of humanity — these and their favorites 
constituted another order of aristocrats. 

Then allied to this, there developed another line of 
aristocrats who based their claim to rank as the best 
of mankind upon their lineage — upon the fact that 
they could trace their ancestry thru long ages to some 
member of the ruling class. 

Then especially in our own country, we have had 
an aristocracy of wealth. All that was needed to gain 
recognition as the best of mankind was great wealth. 
Altho this aristocracy is now frequently decried and 
despised by the representatives of the other orders of 
aristocrats it was nevertheless an improvement upon 
all of the others, for money which has been fairly earned 
is a true measure of service which has been rendered 
society. But wealth has been too frequently acquired 
by chance or fraud or as the result of inequalities of 
conditions and imperfections in our laws, and the con- 
tempt with which society now regards all claims to aris- 
tocracy based merely on wealth is, in part at least, de- 
served. 

The new aristocracy is a product of our own times. 
It is the aristocracy of service. Today the question 
which is being asked of every aspirant for the highest 
social position is not how strong are you, nor what posi- 
tion do you hold in the government, nor who were your 
ancestors, nor yet how much money have you, but rather 
what have you done and what can you do that is useful 
to society? 

Of course, that which was worth while in the oldei 



50 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

orders of aristocracy still survives, but the test of its 
merit is its conformity to the new standard. Robust 
manhood is still admired, but the consecration of this 
manhood to the service of humanity is the condition of 
membership in the new order of aristocracy. 

Political position is still honorable and worth seek- 
ing, but the politician who uses political power for 
personal ends rather than for the public good is the 
most despised creature in a republic of free men. 

Again, a long line of noble ancestry is a source of 
pardonable pride but the world scorns with scant 
courtesy the ignoble scion of a noble house. The weak- 
ling and unfit who claim no ancestry of worth or em- 
inence may pass unnoticed, but when the natural laws 
of heredity fail to function, society views the pitiful 
spectacle with undisguised disgust. 

It is also true that the man of great wealth may 
still frequently break down all the barriers of social 
exclusiveness, and regardless of ancestry or political 
preferment take a prominent place in the ranks of so- 
ciety's "four hundred." 

But it is becoming increasingly the custom even in 
high society to ask the question, not how much have 
you got, but how did you get it, and what are you doing 
with it. A failure to answer the first question is 
probably too frequently overlooked when satisfactory 
answer is made to the second, but it is perhaps a venial 
fault of society to look with tolerance upon the repentant 
millionaire who is unwilling to die with the stigma of 
great wealth resting upon him, and therefore expends 
his wealth in great public enterprises. 



THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 51 

But the day is dawning when the social organism 
is becoming conscious of the fact that the plethoric pro- 
tuberances upon the body politic known as the "over 
rich" are really signs of a disease which is sapping the 
life of the social organism. The over rich member of the 
social organism is like the over ripe boil on the human 
organism. It is a sign of impurity and suggests the 
need of a physician. 

Indeed, society has already been calling for a con- 
sultation of physicians concerning this very matter. 
There are some differences of opinion as to the best 
method of curing the patient. The more radical insist 
that the boils should be lanced instantly. Perhaps the 
wiser physicians are those who insist that the boils are 
merely a symptom and will disappear naturally as soon 
as the blood is cleansed and the various glands of the 
system begin to function properly. 

But, to drop our figure, the best thought of our 
times is agreed that our laws shall be so modified as to 
control the conditions of trade and govern the holding 
of property in such a way as to render impossible the 
acquisition of more wealth than is proportionate to the 
actual service rendered. It is fairly well agreed that 
every man is entitled to hold as his own as much wealth 
as his service to society is worth, — be it the daily wage 
of the toiler in the mine, or the millions of dollars which 
no right thinking man will begrudge such a public 
servant as Thomas A. Edison and others like him who 
have rendered great service to society. 

It is not so well agreed yet that a man is entitled 
to no more than this. There are those who still 



52 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

maintain that a man is entitled to all he can gain by 
what they term fair means. But those who maintain 
this are merely short sighted. They regard as fair any 
means which are not contrary to existing law, and fail 
to recognize the fact that the greatest fault in our social 
system is that existing law permits and fosters often- 
times those great inequalities of wealth. 

The development of the new aristocracy of service 
is one of the surest signs that we are approaching the 
time when our laws and customs are to be modified in 
accordance with this new ideal, when the amount of 
wealth which a man may acquire will be measured in 
terms of service which he has rendered society, and 
when the law will make it impossible to accumulate 
more, and at the same time make it certain that he will 
not receive less. 

I said awhile ago that the fundamental principle 
upon which are based the golden rule and the declara- 
tion of independence, grows out of the nature of man 
and his environment. 

We are now perhaps ready to understand that the 
obligation of man to render service for the benefits he 
receives is based upon the same fundamental principle. 

The brotherhood of man, revealed by and thru 
Jesus Christ, and upon which is based the golden rule, 
clearly imposes upon each the obligations to serve, also 
expressed in the scriptural injunction "bear ye one 
another's burdens." 

But these and other similar injunctions find their 
most universal appeal, not merely in dogmatic authority, 
but in the irrefutable conclusions of reason, and reason 



, THE ARISTOCRACY OF SERVICE 53 

draws its conclusions from the nature of man and the 
nature of his environment. 

The nature of man is social, and his environment is 
the result of the cooperative endeavor of all the men and 
women who live and have lived and who are worth while. 

Men are very dependent upon each other. From 
the cradle to the grave the only joys that are unalloyed, 
the only comforts that are real are those which are made 
possible by human relationships. The infant smile that 
speaks of Heaven is a reflection of mother love ; the 
purest joys of manhood and womanhood originate in 
the home circle and in the social group constituted 
by friends and business acquaintances ; the kindly gleam 
of peace and content upon the face of age is the reflec- 
tion of the goodwill which family and friends and neigh- 
bors feel for him who has served well his day and 
generation. 

Man, alone, is a weakling, impotent to contend with 
the mighty masses of matter and the forces of nature 
which constitute his environment ; in cooperation with 
his fellow men, he is strong, powerful enough to level 
mountains or build them up again, to bridge the widest 
chasms and pierce the deepest depths of earth and sea. 

It is this dependence upon his fellowmen for co- 
operation out of which grows his obligation to treat 
them according to the golden rule; out of which grows 
his obligation to respect their liberty ; and out of which 
grows also his obligation to render due return in service 
for all the benefits which he enjoys. 

Therefore the ideal woman is she who is prepared 
to render service, thereby earning the right to be served. 



CHAPTER IV 

Emotion, Intellect and Action 
"To be pure in heart, vigorous in mind, discreet in action." 

The heart is regarded as the seat of the feelings, the 
emotions and the affections, partly because the 
heart is the most important and vital part of the human 
organism, and partly because the action of the heart 
responds more or less to every emotional stimulus. 

The term heart is used in this sense in the expres- 
sion "pure in heart." We mean thereby purity as to 
the feelings, the emotions and the affections upon which 
are based the impulse to every noble and every ignoble 
deed. 

If these are pure they inspire to acts which are in 
harmony with all that is good — with that which tends 
to the well being of humanity ; if they are impure they 
inspire to acts which have no reference to the well be- 
ing of humanity and may be out of harmony with it. 

The popular use of the terms feeling, emotion and 
affection is quite loose, and in this discussion no attempt 
will be made to limit their use to a purely technical 
significance. It is the purpose of this discussion to con- 
sider the subject as it presents itself, not to the technical 
psychologist, but to the average person who feels and 
experiences these emotions. 

In general the human heart is capable of experienc- 
ing two great types of feeling. 

54 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 55 

We can better understand this if we consider for 
a moment some of the simplest forms of animal life. To 
such simple forms only two reactions are possible : All 
agreeable stimuli attract, and all disagreeable stimuli 
repel. The ability of any organism to adapt itself to its 
environment depends upon the fact that things which 
are agreeable and are useful for the welfare of the 
creature tend to attract it, while things which are dis- 
agreeable, which are harmful to the creature tend to 
drive it away. Any creature which is attracted by the 
hurtful and repelled by the beneficial would not survive, 
and consequently would not reproduce its kind. 

In the long process of development which we term 
evolution, this simple principle has been dominant. And 
what is true of the simplest forms of animal life, is true 
merely with a greater complexity of human life. No 
race of men which loves that which is hurtful can per- 
manently survive. 

The function, therefore, of the feelings, emotions 
and affections, which are the mainsprings of action, is 
ultimately the preservation and perfection of the human 
species. 

The two types of feeling, emotion and affection to 
which reference was made are therefore designed, the 
one to attract the individual to the beneficial stimuli, 
and the other to repel and protect the individual from 
the hurtful stimuli. 

The first of these types is represented by the term 
love. 

Love admits of extended classification. There is 



56 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

(1) love of God, (2) love of country, (3) love of things 
material and (4) human love. 

The first of these needs no further definition. It 
is the purest of all the affections and when it really 
possesses the human heart it purifies all the rest. Happy 
is that man or woman who has been enabled to gain a 
vision of the Divine Spirit which animates the Universe 
and in whose heart has thereby been awakened that glow 
of love, which illumines all things else with a light which 
never was on land or sea. 

The second affection we term patriotism. 

" Lives there a man with soul so dead 
Who never to himself hath said, 
My own, my native land!" 

When this love is pure there is no more noble senti- 
ment that thrills the heart of man. But many crimes 
have been committed, and are today being committed 
in the name of patriotism. There is something wrong 
with that love of country which impels men to strife 
and carnage and theft. God grant that in this great 
holocaust which is now consuming the world the 
hearts of men may be purified, so that patriotism, un- 
defiled by selfishness and ambition and lust of power, 
may find its true expression in constructive efforts to 
make the fatherland of every man a veritable garden 
of Eden wherein the children of men may dwell in peace 
and plenty. 

The third group of the affections has been termed 
the "love of things material." These are the appetites, 
the desires, the passions. 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 57 

The history of ethical philosophy reveals a curious 
conflict which has been going on in the thought of hu- 
manity with reference to these impulses since men first 
began to think. 

In general the thinkers have been divided into two 
classes. The first class is most conspicuously represented 
by the Stoics in ancient times and in more modern times 
by the Puritans. This class has regarded the appetites, 
desires and passions as ignoble, base, impulses to be re- 
strained at any cost and extirpated if possible. 

The other class was represented by the Epicureans 
in olden times. They have been frequently misunder- 
stood and more frequently, perhaps, misrepresented. 

In our modern times we have no name to represent 
this class, because perhaps it is now the dominant class 
and has comparatively little serious opposition. 

This modern view of appetites, desires and passions 
sees in them perfectly normal expressions of man's 
nature, impulses which are designed for his well being 
and happiness and perpetuity. When these impulses 
are pure they result in the development of the highest 
type of humanity: when they are impure they result 
in the glutton, the drunkard, the miser, the thief, the 
spendthrift, and the sensualist. 

The fourth group of the affections is the human af- 
fections — human love. Here again we must make fur- 
ther classification. Human love is of four kinds — con- 
jugal love, filial and parental love, love of friends and 
love of the species. 

By conjugal love is meant that affection experienced 
by an individual of one sex for an individual of the 



58 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

other sex, and which finds its complete expression and 
satisfaction in the marriage relation, which, in our 
modern civilization, has become a conventional institu- 
tion, involving certain rites and ceremonies and certifi- 
cates and obligations. These conventional forms per se 
have manifestly nothing to do with the affection which, 
if it does not exist before the forms and rites are cele- 
brated, will probably never exist at all. 

On the other hand it is a false idea that there is 
just one person in the world for you and that some 
mysterious influence will take possession of your soul 
when you come into his presence. This is a romantic 
conception in which the poet and the novelist have long 
delighted. But it may be doubted if in real life there 
was ever any such thing as love at first sight, except on 
the part of one who is already pining for love and seizes 
upon the first available and unattached object. Any 
other decent, unattached individual would have 
answered just as well. 

Even at the expense of the loss of some of our 
romantic idealism about love, it is well for the young 
women of this practical age to know that love is a per- 
fectly normal experience based upon congeniality of 
taste and temperament on the one hand and propinquity 
on the other. Place any two persons of opposite sex, 
who fulfill these conditions, in sufficient isolation to pre- 
vent the distracting influence of other eligible parties, 
and love is as inevitable as fate is supposed to be. 

Filial and parental love are of course not identical, 
nor even correlative. They should occupy some sort of 
reciprocal relation, the one to the other, but this is not 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 59 

necessary, for frequently the one, especially parental 
love, exists without the other. But we necessarily asso- 
ciate the two and in any normal family the one implies 
the other. There is no emotion which is less likely to 
become impure than this. Indeed, it is this type of hu- 
man love which has been used in the highest forms of 
religion to represent the love of God — the fatherhood 
of God represents the highest conception of God which 
has yet been possible to the mind of man. 

Friendship is the third type of human love to which 
reference has been made. 

To love those who love us should be and usually is 
a great joy. That man is indeed small and mean who 
does not rejoice in a number of friendships. One should 
be almost as careful, however, in choosing her friends as 
she is in choosing her husband, for true friendship 
should be as lasting as life. 

When unmixed with selfishness in the form of the 
desires for gain or power etc., friendship is one of the 
purest emotions of the human heart. It is one of the 
chiefest joys of humanity in the bloom and vigor of 
youth, and age knows no greater solace. 

The most powerful force in humanity is love. It 
is love, figuratively speaking, that makes the world go 
round, for love is the emotion which energizes the arm 
of humanity that keeps the world in motion. 

The truest measure of man is the amount of love 
he has in his heart. It is possible that there are a few 
men who have just enough for self and family, whose 
prayers include just "me and my wife, my son John 
and his wife, us four and no more." 



60 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

But there are few men so small as not to have love 
enough in their hearts to take into the circle of their 
sympathies a few friends. 

The great hearted men and women, however, are 
they who include in this circle the entire human species 
— these are the philanthropists. This term properly 
used ought not necessarily to imply the possession of 
money. 

The word philanthropist means merely a " lover 
of mankind," and the pauper may be as true a philan- 
thropist as the millionaire. Many millionaires are very 
small when measured by this test and many who are 
among the poorest in purse are, when thus measured, 
entitled to rank among the great. 

Socrates never had the money to found a school or 
endow a welfare movement, but his sympathies were so 
universal that he ranks among the greatest of men. 
Jesus of Nazareth never built a church or a hospital, nor 
occupied any high position in any political or ecclesi- 
astical hierarchy, but he loved humanity so well he laid 
down his life a willing sacrifice for mankind. ' i Greater 
love hath no man than this, that he give his life for his 
friend." 

The age in which we live is dominated to a large 
degree by the spirit and teaching of Jesus, and the 
distinguishing virtue of the age is this recognition of 
the "brotherhood of man." 

But surely, you say, there has never been an age 
when war was so universal nor so terrible as it is in 
this age. This is admitted. Civilization is a very com- 
plex organism. Even in smaller organisms of far less 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 61 

complexity there are always numerous forces which are 
operative, and sometimes these forces are contrary and 
even contradictory in their tendencies. 

So it is with civilization. The fact that for a time 
the forces of greed and lust of power and hatred appear 
to dominate Europe and in some measure to dominate 
the world, does not mean that humanity has lost its 
altruism. 

These forces which lead to strife w T ill spend their 
strength after a while, and then the forces of love, of 
altruism, of philanthropy will have even a greater op- 
portunity to flourish. 

Moreover, as horrible as war is, it furnishes some 
of the best opportunities for the cultivation of the virtue 
of philanthropy. Witness the evidences of interest of 
the whole world in the sufferers in Belgium, in Poland 
and other parts of the devastated continent. Never in 
its history has the world witnessed such evidences of 
philanthropy as have been revealed by the conflagration 
kindled by hate upon the battlefields of Europe. 

It is perhaps given to few men to be able to include 
all men in their sympathies. But as the race develops 
the number of these will become larger and after awhile 
they will be so numerous that war will no longer be 
possible, and then will triumph that era of peace and 
goodwill to men, about which the angels sang in far off 
Gallilee, on that natal day of the Prince of Peace. 

Thus far we have discussed only one of the two 
general types of feeling, emotion and affection, viz., that 
which attracts man towards objects which are useful and 
beneficial. The other type is that which repels him and 



62 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

protects him from objects which are or may be hurtful. 

For this latter we have no very satisfactory general 
term. Hate is the term which most nearly represents 
the opposite of love, but hate is not a pure emotion, and 
certainly cannot be used to represent all that group of 
feelings and emotions which repel us from objects, such 
for example as anger, disgust, dislike, contempt and the 
like. 

For purposes of this discussion these only need be 
named as fairly typical of the group, all of which are 
designed for the well being and protection of the indi- 
vidual, and in so far as they perform their proper func- 
tion are just as pure and just as useful as their more 
agreeable opposites. 

But if impoperly mixed with other emotions these 
may result in impurity of heart. 

Now, just what do we mean by the term purity as 
applied to the heart, or to these various affections which 
are implied by the term heart. 

Pure, in its generic use, means, uncontaminated by 
grosser or meaner or less valuable substances, or un- 
adulterated with any substance of a different nature. 
Pure gold is gold unmixed with any other substance; 
pure water is water which has no dirt, or filth, or poison, 
or, indeed, any other substance in it. 

Nickel, or silver, or copper, or any other metal if 
considered alone, uncontaminated by any other sub- 
stance and in its appropriate sphere may be just as 
pure as gold. 

Copper, as copper, may be just as pure as gold, but 
mix never so little copper with your gold and your gold 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 63 

immediately becomes impure — and indeed so becomes 
also your copper impure. 

Carbolic acid, as such, may be just as pure as 
water, but mix a little carbolic acid with your water and 
it becomes to that extent impure, just as the carbolic 
acid becomes impure when you place water or any other 
soluble substance in it. 

The exactest use of the word pure, limits it to a 
substance which is absolutely unmixed with any other 
substance whatsoever. A looser use of the term refers 
to any substance or even mixture of substances which 
does not contain some element which is harmful. But 
in any case impurity always implies a mixture of ele- 
ments; for any element, be it the most harmful, may be 
pure; and even the most dangerous and harmful ele- 
ments may under proper control and in given circum- 
stances become useful and beneficial. 

The use of the w T ord pure as applied to the feelings, 
emotions and affections is quite consistent with its 
generic use. 

A pure heart is a heart which contains only pur? 
feelings, emotions and affections, and pure feelings, emo- 
tions and affections are those which are unadulterated 
and uncontaminated by any other affections. 

Any affection, as such, is just as pure as any other 
affection, but it is only when they become mixed with 
one another, or dissolved the one by the other, that they 
become impure. 

For example the love of country, as such, is just as 
pure an affection as the love of God, and even so are 
the desires for material things. Any one of these af- 



64 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

fections acting independently and normally would impel 
to acts that would be certainly blameless and even 
praiseworthy. 

But if the love of country be contaminated with the 
desire for material things there results an impurity of 
heart which impels to deeds which lead to oppression 
and strife and maybe war. And if, to go further, the 
love of God is contaminated with the foregoing mixture 
of affections the result is tenfold worse. 

No greater cruelties nor more abhorrent crimes 
have befouled the history of mankind than are those 
which have been committed in the name of religion. 

There has perhaps never been a war not even ex- 
cepting the awful conflict in which the nations of Europe 
are now engaged, but that the rival leaders have invoked 
the blessing of Almighty God upon their respective 
armies. 

In the dark ages of the inquisition the most revolt- 
ing crimes became as common as the day, and those 
who professed to love God most were the greatest 
criminals. 

These and innumerable similar events in the history 
of religion can be explained only on the hypothesis that 
the love of God, which unquestionably existed in the 
hearts of these men, had become mixed and contaminated 
with baser desires and appetites and passions, and thus 
the whole heart became impure, and consequently moral 
perception could no longer function normally. 

To further illustrate the point, let us consider hu- 
man love. There is no purer affection than that of con- 
jugal love, but it is a mistake to assume that the mar- 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 65 

riage altar sanctifies and purifies the love of every pair 
that kneel before it. The purity of the conjugal love 
is a matter which is settled in the heart of the lover, and 
is not guaranteed by any certificate of priest or court. 

Impurity of conjugal love consists in the improper 
mixing of the desires and appetites and passions. The 
woman, for example, who mixes the desire for wealth 
with conjugal love — who marries for money, if you 
please, is impure in her love, I care not how many priests 
have sanctified it, nor how many officials have witnessed 
the certificate. 

The appetites, desires and passions in themselves are 
pure. It is only when these function abnormally and 
become improperly mixed with each other and with the 
other affections that they become impure and lead to 
degradation and ruin. 

And so even are anger, dislike, disgust, etc., per- 
fectly pure emotions when absolutely unmixed with any 
other emotions. 

Purity of heart, therefore, is quite consistent with 
the presence of all of the normal appetites, desires and 
affections. The task of the moral teacher is not to ex- 
tirpate the natural impulses, but so to organize and con- 
trol them as that each shall function in its proper order 
and under its proper circumstances, and in its proper 
combinations — the criterion being always the welfare 
of the individual, subordinated to the welfare of the 
race. 

The modern woman, if she be an ideal woman, must 
not only be pure in heart, she must also be vigorous in 
mind. 



66 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

The term mind, in its broadest meaning as used by 
the psychologist, would include all conscious processes, 
and therefore includes the affections which have already 
been discussed. Even accepting this definition, it re- 
mains true that the ideal woman must be vigorous in 
mind, for the strength and vigor of the affections is a 
prime condition for vigor of thought and action. 

But the common use of the term mind has reference 
primarily to the power of thought or to the so called 
intellectual operations, and it is these to which we shall 
refer in this discussion. 

The fundamental intellectual operations are per- 
ception, judgment and reasoning. A vigorous mind 
therefore, is conditioned upon the accurate and lively 
functioning of these three faculties. 

Clear perception is the prime prerequisite of all 
vigorous thinking. 

It is thru perception that we must get all of the 
elements of knowledge, but perception, of course, in- 
volves sensation — it is only thru the senses that we per- 
ceive. The importance of the cultivation of the senses 
is, therefore, apparent. 

Fortunately we are endowed with quite a number 
of different sense organs. While modern psychology 
does not regard the popular classification of the senses 
into five groups as complete or perfectly satisfactory, 
such a classification is sufficient for all ordinary pur- 
poses of discussion. These are sight, hearing, touch, 
taste and smell. 

The total lack of any one of these will limit the 
power of the individual to understand and adapt him- 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 67 

self to his environment, and by so much limit his power 
of thought. 

The exceptional cases, such as that of Helen Keller, 
Laura Bridgnian and others of lesser notoriety, do not 
disprove, but rather prove the principle involved. Such 
exceptional cases are explained on the hypothesis that 
the loss of any one or more senses imposes upon the re- 
maining sense a greater demand for response, and as 
practice or use makes perfect, it follows under some 
fortunate circumstances that the exceeding acuteness 
thereby developed in the remaining senses more or less 
fully compensates for the loss of the others. 

This, however, demonstrates the advantage of 
acuteness of sensation rather than the reverse. It is 
not the loss of sight and hearing which has made Helen 
Keller one of the marvels of our age, but it is the wonder- 
ful development of her sense of touch. 

It is better to have one sense perfectly developed 
than to have all five senses poorly developed. Too much 
stress cannot be laid upon this matter, which in most of 
our educational schemes is sorely neglected. 

The kindergarten and the more recent Montesori 
method recognize the importance of this to some extent, 
but the greatest need of primary education, which 
should begin in the home, is the development of a more 
satisfactory method of testing and training the senses 
of the growing child. 

The importance of care and effort in the training 
of the sense organs and the faculty of perception does 
not cease, however, with childhood. Every person who 
has an ambition to impress himself upon his day and 



68 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

generation should constantly strive to develop and foster 
the habit of accurate observation. It is the person who 
is alive to his surroundings, who sees and hears and 
feels acutely, who is also able to think clearly. 

It is true that some learned men have been noted 
for being oblivious to their surroundings, but these ex- 
ceptional cases, like that of Helen Keller, are explained 
on the hypothesis of concentration. The person who has 
a highly developed mind is able to concentrate so 
thoroughly upon one sensation or perception or idea as, 
for the moment, to exclude all others from consciousness. 

This leads to the general statement that all per- 
ception involves the concentration of attention, and in 
this process the exclusion of the irrelevant is just as 
important as the inclusion of every experience which is 
relevant. An individual may have very acute sensa- 
tions, but lacking in this control of the attention may 
jump from one idea to another so rapidly as fairly to 
earn the appellation ' ' scatter-brained. ' ' 

Accurate perception therefore involves both acute 
sensations and complete control of attention. To per- 
ceive clearly is to see or hear or feel acutely and to as- 
sociate with that which is seen, or heard, or felt every- 
thing in past experience (or memory) which tends to 
explain or interpret the meaning of the present experi- 
ence; and in order to do this successfully, one must be 
able to resist the temptation to leave the main path and 
wander into the numerous by-paths which continually 
invite. 

One of the first indications of a vigorous mind is 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 69 

this ability to hold the attention upon one object until 
it is fully understood. 

Let two girls walk down the street and back again. 
One is attracted by fifty objects and upon her return 
can tell nothing definite about any one of them; the 
other girl saw only a few things, but is able to give a 
minute description of each. The perceptive powers of 
the latter girl are being well developed; the former is 
scatter-brained. The latter will develop into a vigorous 
strong-minded woman if she continues to have a fair 
chance ; the former will be weak, vacillating, never know 
her own mind, drawn hither and thither by whatever 
chance circumstances fortune may have in store for her. 

The second element in vigorous thinking is judg- 
ment. This is a little more complex than perception. 
In its simplest forms perception deals with only one 
object, while judgment deals with two. You perceive 
an apple, but you judge that this apple is larger than 
that. 

Judgment involves a relatively high degree of men- 
tal development. In the lowest forms of animal life 
and in the infant stage of life it is probably altogether 
absent, or if present in any degree, performs a negligible 
function. 

Good judgment involves, first of all, the ability to 
perceive clearly. One cannot make a correct judgment 
if perception has failed to furnish correct data. 

Judging is a comparison of two objects of percep- 
tion. One is prejudiced or prejudges who is so en- 
amoured of one of these objects that the judgment is 
influenced in favor of it. 



70 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

This is one of the weaknesses which the woman who 
would be vigorous in mind must overcome. The emo- 
tional nature of woman is so highly developed that it 
is difficult for the average woman to give an unbiased 
judgment. 

If a prize were offered for the largest apple and two 
apples were entered, one of which were red and the other 
green, and if the two apples were so nearly the same size 
as to render it difficult to decide, the woman who liked 
red apples would decide in favor of the red apple, and 
the woman who liked green apples would decide in favor 
of the green. Both would probably be conscientious, but 
the judgment would be influenced by a feeling which had 
nothing to do with the case. 

This is a simple illustration of what is constantly 
happening, in a very complicated way, to the judgments 
of men as well as women. But the man or woman whose 
opinions are to count in the great world of affairs must 
be able to see things as they are and pass unbiased judg- 
ment on the merits of every case presented. 

The third element in vigorous thinking is reasoning. 

As judgment involves perception as a basis of com- 
parison, so reasoning involves judgment. Reasoning 
consists in a comparison of judgments and the formation 
of a new judgment out of the two which were compared. 

You have two apples in your room, the one larger 
than the other, according to your judgment; you take 
the smaller of the two and carry it to your friend 's room 
and compare it with an apple which she has there, which 
according to your judgment is smaller than the one you 
now hold near it. These two judgments lead you to the 



EMOTION, INTELLECT AND ACTION 71 

third judgment that your friend's apple is smaller than 
the one in your room. You have been able to compare 
your friend's apple with the apple in your room by 
means of the third apple. 

This is reasoning reduced to its simplest form. But 
even in its greatest complications it involves, first of all, 
clear perceptions of the individual objects; second, un- 
biased judgments of the relations between the objects. 

The conclusions of reason, being at last judgments, 
are subject to the same sort of bias mentioned in the 
previous discussion of judgment, and it is here again 
that women have frequently been charged with being 
deficient. 

The woman, therefore, who would take the place 
in the world of affairs which is offered her by modern 
society, must cultivate her perceptive powers, discipline 
her judgment and train her reason; for it is thus that 
she will become vigorous in mind. 

The normal result of a pure heart and a vigorous 
mind is discreet action. The value of lively emotions 
lies in the fact that they impel — nay even force the in- 
dividual to act; the value of the vigorous mind lies in 
the fact that the action which is prompted by the heart 
is directed and controlled by the mind. And if the mind 
be vigorous, the action will be discreet. 

The woman who would be truly discreet must culti- 
vate a pure heart, for, as has already been shown, it is 
in the heart that the impulses to all action originate. 
It is possible by the exercise of sound judgment to 
counteract or overcome bad impulses, but the life of 
such a person is a constant conflict between the impulses 
of the heart and the dictates of judgment and reason. 



72 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

Such a conflict is the normal experience of the average 
person, but the constant goal toward which the ideal 
woman will strive is that state wherein the impulses of 
the heart may coincide with the conclusions of reason? 

But the complexities of human life and human re- 
lations are such that there will always be a heavy demand 
upon the judgment and reason. For the elementary 
emotional impulses are comparatively few, while the ap- 
plication of these to human need calls for innumerable 
combinations and adaptations. 

The demand for discretion arises in your experience 
probably a hundred times a day. When you arise in the 
morning, you must use discretion in selecting your dress. 
The normal desire to appear at your best must be con- 
trolled and directed by your judgment in determining 
what is most suitable under the circumstances. 

When you go to the breakfast table the natural ap- 
petite must be controlled and directed by the judgment 
and reason. 

And so every impulse to action must be governed 
and controlled by judgment and reason. When judg- 
ment and reason exercise their proper function and the 
conduct of the individual is in harmony with her own 
interests and with the interests of the race we character- 
ize such a person as a discreet person. 

The virtue of discretion is so manifest that any fur- 
ther attempt to explain or commend it could only be an 
elaboration of the obvious. 

Purity of heart, vigor of mind, discretion in action 
is a combination of virtues which can be commended to 
the woman who would take her proper place in the big 
business of life. 



CHAPTER V 

Love, Fear, Hate 

"To love deeply, fear nothing, hate never. " 

Love, Fear and Hate are the three most fundamental 
and moving emotions which man is capable of ex- 
periencing. Love it is which raises him to the highest 
heights of bliss, and makes him likest unto God ; fear is 
that ignoble feeling which keeps him on the dead level 
of mediocrity, and reveals his kinship to the material 
Earth; while hate it is which sinks him deep in the 
depths of misery, and affords a basis for his belief in 
the reality of hell and the devil. 

The psychology of the emotions is probably the 
most difficult problem with which the modern psycho- 
logist has to deal. To analyze an emotion while it 
actually exists is almost impossible, for analysis involves 
a careful unprejudiced introspection and the very 
nature of emotion precludes the possibility of that calm 
and judicial frame of mind which careful introspection 
requires. 

The chief interest in the study of emotion in 
modern psychology has centered about the significance 
of the physiological experience of emotion. 

Concerning this matter two radically different 
schools of thought have been developed. The one holds 
to the traditional view that emotion is a highly sensitive 

73 



74 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

state of mind which usually manifests itself in certain 
definite and characteristic movements of the muscles, 
and in modifications of the breathing, circulation of the 
blood and secretion of the various glands, notably the 
lacrymal and salivary glands, but also probably the 
various more internal glands which are not so easy to 
observe. 

In contrast to this traditional view a theory was 
advanced simultaneously by James and Lange which 
undertakes to show that the emotion is not the cause 
but rather the result of all these physiological phe- 
nomena. 

This theory, known as the James-Lange theory of 
emotion, is popularly stated in the following form : We 
are sad because we cry and do not cry because we are 
sad. 

Every other emotional experience is interpreted 
in a similar manner. It would be asserted, according 
to this theory, that the emotion of fear follows the 
motor response to the terrifying object. Trembling, 
sinking of the heart, dryness of the throat and various 
other physiological modifications recognized as due to 
fear, under the James-Lange theory are regarded as the 
causes of what we term the emotional experience of fear. 

Love, fear, hate, sorrow, anger, joy and numerous 
minor modifications of these are emotions each of which 
has more or less definite physical accompaniments. 

The traditional view regards these physical ac- 
companiments as the expression of the emotions; the 
emotions cause these physical expressions. 

The James-Lange theory, on the other hand, re- 



LOVE, FEAR, HATE 75 

gards these physical accompaniments as the cause and 
the characteristic emotion as the result. 

It is not the purpose of this lecture to settle the 
controversy between these two opposing schools. It 
might, however, perhaps with profit, be pointed out that 
the radical differences relate to an interpretation of 
facts rather than to the facts themselves. 

The Ci feeling" element of the emotion, as far as 
the analysis has been carried, certainly has a physi- 
ological basis. The most cogent argument of the ad- 
vocates of the James-Lange theory has been a challenge 
to the opposition to point out any of the characteristic 
feelings of emotion which are not directly attributable 
to the physical reactions which are characteristic of the 
emotional state. 

Xow whether or not the feeling element of emotion 
should properly have the significance which the advo- 
cates of the James-Lange theory attribute to it, there 
can be no controversy over the fact that in the normal 
person this feeling element is always present and that 
it is a very important matter. Without it, emotion would 
be of relatively little importance; but because of it. 
emotional states are the most important facts with which 
a human being is concerned. 

Practically every noble achievement recorded on 
the pages of history had its stimulus in the emotional 
experience of one or more individuals ; and just as truly 
all of the notorious crimes and barbarities can be traced 
to the same source. 

All of the great enterprises of the present day 
would be halted within forty-eight hours, if the emo- 



76 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

tional nature of humanity were destroyed ; and likewise 
all the sin and crime of the world would cease for lack 
of a stimulus. 

It would be difficult to imagine a race of men who 
had no emotions. Some of the ancients conceived of the 
celestial world as inhabited by a race of gods who had 
no emotions — who somehow had made the world but 
felt no further interest in it. Such a conception could 
naturally never gain popular favor nor make any seri- 
ous impression upon humanity. 

On the other hand, the central idea of Christian 
religion is love, the most fundamental of all the emo- 
tions. The conception of the one and eternal God is 
that of a being whose essential nature is best expressed 
by the one word love. God is love. 

Love, like all the emotions, requires for its existence 
a subject and an object. The most essential character- 
istic of love is an attitude of "good will" on the part 
of the subject toward the object. God wills the good of 
of his creatures ; the parent wills the good of the child ; 
the patriot wills the good of his country ; the lover wills 
the good of his beloved. 

This attitude of "good will' is after all, however, 
when considered alone, a volitional and intellectual 
state. But it is characteristic of such states to be ac- 
companied by the purely physiological modifications to 
which reference has already been made. The breathing 
becomes deep, the circulation expands, the internal, 
secretory glands function freely, the whole organism 
thrills with delightful sensations. 

As hydrogen and oxygen, two very different sub- 



LOVE, FEAR, HATE 77 

stances, when blended into one become totally different 
from either, so this intellectual state of "good will" 
blended together with these sensations which coexist 
with it, become an emotion. 

It is probably just as fallacious to say that "good 
will" is love as it is to say that certain purely physical 
sensations are love. It is a combination of these into 
one that constitute the divine passion. 

Love is a healthy emotion ! The best prescription 
which could be given some anemic, dyspeptic, crabbed, 
dried up men and women would be "to love ' ' — man or 
beast or even thing. 

A dog or cat is a rather poor object for the ex- 
penditure of the wealth of affection of the human heart, 
but I am satisfied that a pet has saved the health, if 
not the life of many a lonely man or woman. 

Love may find an appropriate object, however, not 
only in concrete individuals, and things, but also in a 
cause, an institution or a country. 

Religion is, par excellence, the sphere in which love 
may find its most appropriate objects. Religion has 
cured many a man and woman of physical ills — not 
by any magic charm of saints and shrines, perhaps, but 
rather as the result of the health-giving flow of blood 
and vital secretions which attend the emotional experi- 
ence, which is the basis of every real religion. 

But the beneficent, health-giving effects of love are 
not confined to the sphere of religion — unless one were 
inclined to regard all love as religious. 

Under its benign influence youth and maiden put 
forth their best energies, the step is elastic, the cheeks 



78 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

glow with the bloom of health, and the eyes sparkle 
with the light of interest; the mind is responsive and 
alive to all that is beautiful and good in the world, and 
no problem seems too difficult for solution. 

When the sky is overcast, love sees behind the cloud 
its golden lining; when nature frowns, love smiles be- 
lieving in the fullness of its joy that all is good; when 
friends forsake and foes scoff, love laughs in the consci- 
ousness of its own sufficiency for all things. 

Love not only ministers to the health of the body, 
but also is tonic for the soul. The soul of man is mani- 
fest in character. The great characters of earth have 
been men and women who have loved deeply. In religi- 
ous history the great heroes have, been men and women 
who have had great emotional experiences, for whom 
God was "all in all;" in political and civil history the 
names that stand out most clearly are those who were 
fired with the love of country; in literature whether 
song or story the characters which engage our attention 
and live in our memories are those who loved best, — 
sometimes even "not wisely but too well." 

The character of the man or woman who has not 
some great love as its center and foundation is as un- 
formed and unstable as the mound of sand by the surg- 
ing sea. 

Love is not only the basic principle at the founda- 
tion of every great character, but its exercise is as es- 
sential to the health of the soul as the exercise of the 
muscle and glands is necessary to the health of the body. 

If a man could love perfectly all the time, he would 



LOVE, FEAR, HATE 79 

never be sick in body or in mind; he would never be 
unhappy and would never die. 

But alas, we stand here face to face with one of 
the great paradoxes of life; for the imperfections of 
life, which result in disease, decay and death also render 
perfect love impossible. 

Fear. 

In marked contrast to the beneficent effects of this 
emotion both upon the physical and psychical organ- 
ism, are the effects of the other two emotions which are 
to be considered at this time, viz., fear and hate. 

Scientists tell us that there are two processes con- 
stantly going on in every living organism, the one is 
called the anabolic and the other the katabolic process. 

The anabolic process is the term which denotes the 
building up, the repair, the growth of the cells and tis- 
sues which compose the organism ; the katabolic process 
denotes the disintegration, the decay, the death of cell 
and tissue. 

Anabolism and katabolism, in varying ratio, are 
going on from the beginning to the end of every indi- 
vidual life. 

Love promotes anabolism; fear and hate promote 
katabolism. 

Symptoms of Fear. 

The characteristic physical symptoms of fear are 
numerous and very marked. In general the motor ap- 



80 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

paratus of man by means of which he can react to 
stimuli, may be divided into three systems, and each 
of these systems undergoes very decided modifications 
in the state of fear. First, there is the system of volun- 
tary muscles — the muscles of locomotion, of movement 
and of speech. Experiment and observation both have 
revealed the fact that there is a marked weakening of 
these muscles under the influence of fear; in extreme 
cases there is suppression of all movement, one is said 
to be "rooted to the spot;" again, the voice is hoarse 
and broken, or there is complete dumbness. 

In the second place the muscles which control vari- 
ous processes of organic life are definitely influenced 
by fear. In extreme fear the arrest of intestinal and 
other important internal organic secretions is likely to 
occur; salivary secretion is diminished and the mouth 
and throat become dry ; again there is cold sweat, goose 
flesh, difficulty in breathing, constriction of the throat. 

The third system of motor apparatus involved in 
the emotion of fear is known as the vaso-motor system. 
This is the muscular system which expands and con- 
tracts the blood vessels and this controls the disposition 
of the blood in the various parts of the body. The vaso- 
motor system is peculiarly subject to the influence of 
fear. The face becomes pale, and there is a general 
peripheral anemia; there is a violent and spasmodic 
constriction of the vessels, resulting in shivering and 
in violent spasms of the heart ; extreme cases may result 
in paralysis and even in death. 

All of these manifestations of fear are expressive 
of a lowering of the vital tone, of katabolism, which 



LOVE, FEAR, HATE 81 

must necessarily have a reflex influence upon the general 
health of the organism. Fear is unhealthy. 

It is as bad for the physical health to allow fear 
to enter the mind as it is to take poison or non-digest- 
ible substances into the system. 

While the effects of fear upon the health of the 
body are very serious, the effects upon the soul need 
to be shunned most of all. 

How contemptible in the eyes of all is the craven 
hearted man or woman. If he is religious he spends 
his time begging for deliverance from hell, forgetful 
of the joys and opportunities of Earth and the bliss 
and glory to be attained in Heaven ; if in public life, he 
neglects the great opportunities for constructive states- 
manship in the effort to keep his political fences re- 
paired; in private life, he misses all the joys which his 
past or present success might justify by indulging in 
vain forebodings of possible disaster in the future. 

Fear not only dries up the bodily secretions and 
paralyzes the muscles, but it also paralyzes and renders 
unhealthy the soul of man as well. 

In very recent years the evil effects of fear upon 
the physical and mental health have been emphasized 
and more completely demonstrated by the practical re- 
sults of the modern psycho-analyst. 

It has been demonstrated that many if not all of 
the neuroses or nervous afflictions, which do not have 
a definite physical cause, are due to the persistence in 
the realm of the subconsciousness of some one of the 
fears of childhood. 

As an illustration typical of hundreds which are 



82 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

recorded in the literature of this subject, a case men- 
tioned by Addington Bruce will be sufficient. "A young 
man was brought to the Boston City Hospital afflicted 
with peculiar spasmodic convulsions. These continued 
in spite of the usual treatment, for a week, when they 
abruptly ceased and the patient left the hospital. A 
year later he again applied to be treated for precisely 
the same symptoms, and as before, these lasted for a 
week, when they terminated apparently of their own 
accord. A third time, again at the expiration of a year, 
the young man appeared at the hospital, suffering from 
spasmodic convulsions. This time his case was called 
to the attention of two of our foremost psychopathol- 
ogists, Dr. Boris Sidis and Dr. Morton Prince. Ques- 
tioned by them, the young man stated that for five 
years he had been troubled in this singular way, the at- 
tacks occurring in the month of January, the rest of the 
year he declared he was in good health. 

* ' Suspecting that his case was one of hysteria rather 
than of epilepsy, and consequently that it was the re- 
sult of a severe emotional shock experienced at some 
time in his earlier life, Dr. Sidis and Dr. Prince sought 
to obtain from him a full account of his history. He 
answered their questions readily enough, but could re- 
call nothing of especial significance, excepting that, 
when a boy in Eussia, he had once had a great fright 
when passing a cemetery alone at night. He remembered 
this fright only dimly, stating that he had fainted, and 
had been ill for a week or so afterward. 

' ' The physicians then hypnotized him and once more 



LOVE, FEAR, HATE 83 

questioned him about the incidents of his early life, 
particularly about the fright of which he had just 
spoken. Now he remembered it in perfect detail; he 
seemed even to be living through the distressing ex- 
perience, in which, while going along the lonely country 
road past the cemetery he had heard a noise which gave 
him the idea that somebody or something, possibly a 
ghost, was pursuing him. He had thought to gain 
safety by flight, but to his horror his feet had seemed 
rooted to the ground ; shrieking with fear, he had fallen 
unconscious and had been taken home by some neigh- 
bors who found him lying in the road. He had soon 
regained his senses but had been troubled for a week 
with exactly the spasmodic convulsions which in later 
life had become periodical with him on the anniversary 
of the fright at the cemetery. 

"In fact the physicians found that at any time, 
merely by hypnotizing him and recalling the cemetery 
incident to his mind they could bring on a convulsive at- 
tack. To them this meant that the whole trouble was 
functional rather than organic; that it had its roots in 
the subconscious memories associated with the boyhood 
fright ; and that the eradication of these memories by 
suggestive treatment would result in a permanent cure. 
This happily proved to be the case." 

Many similar instances are on record in which 
grave nervous diseases which have developed in adult 
life have been traced back to nervous shocks in child- 
hood resulting from ghost stories, gruesome fairy tales, 
tales of hell and eternal punishment, etc. The subject 



84 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

of such nervous disturbances never realizes the true 
source of them ; the incidents have ceased to be a matter 
of conscious memory, but they lie deep down in the 
subconsciousness. 

Indeed, the cure for the disease is accomplished by 
connecting these disconnected subconscious memories 
with the present, assuring the subject that the present 
ailment is due to this long-forgotten experience, and the 
nervous disturbance promptly ceases. 

The important practical point for present con- 
sideration is the fact that fear has more than a momen- 
tary evil effect upon the individual, and especially upon 
children and young people. Its immediate effects are 
bad enough, both upon the body and the mind, but the 
deferred effects are far worse, and what seems in its 
beginning a comparative trifle may in the end result in 
the most disastrous consequences to both body and mind. 

Shall we, then, absolutely discountenance fairy tales 
and ghost stories, etc. ? By no means. Such things are 
too closely interwoven with our religion and with our 
literature, and are important in the cultivation of the 
imagination, and furnish the basis for illustrations, 
metaphors, etc., so rich in meaning that our language 
would be poor, indeed, without them. The important 
point is to avoid the practice of using these stories to 
work upon the emotions of the young beyond the 
momentary thrill, which has in it an element of pleasure. 
The child should thoroughly understand that the stories 
are fiction — it will still get all the thrills that are 
necessary. 



LOVE, FEAR, HATE 85 

Hate. 

Of all the emotions which ought to be avoided hate 
is that one of greatest importance. 

Anger, which is often an element and sometimes 
the beginning of hate, may serve a useful purpose. In 
the evolution of the species anger has doubtless been 
useful in the preservation of the life and certainly the 
rights of the individual. 

But hate is anger perpetuated and fostered, and 
never yet served any useful purpose. On the contrary, 
its reflex influence upon the subject is perhaps the most 
blighting of all the emotions. 

The characteristic of hate, in contrast to love, is an 
attitude of bad will on the part of the subject toward 
the object. 

Hate, like fear, has a definitely hurtful effect upon 
many of the organic secretions of the body. These ef- 
fects have been verified by experiments to some extent. 
Van Swieten, Bichat and Trousseau and others have 
proven that the quantity of ptomaine in the saliva is 
augmented by the presence of this emotion; and it has 
long been known that the bite of furious animals is 
dangerous, while analagous facts have been ascertained 
in the case of one human being bitten by another in a 
fit of rage. The Lacteal secretion, according to well 
known authorities, may become toxic, and produce in 
the nursling the effect of poisoning. 

From the standpoint of purely physical health, 
therefore, this emotion should be avoided if possible. 



86 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

But its blighting influence upon the soul — its effect 
upon character is more terrible still. 

The man or woman who has allowed the seeds of 
hate to find lodgment in the soil of the soul soon finds 
a rank growth of weeds springing up and choking all 
the beautiful and fragrant flowers. 

To change the figure, hate is a poison of such 
venomous strength it befouls and embitters all the 
springs of human nature, and changes the healing 
streams of human kindness into cesspools whence arise 
a miasma which blights every life that comes within 
the range of its influence. 

An attitude of bad or ill will toward any creature 
has the effect of warping and stifling the spiritual nature 
of man. The normal spiritual state of man is, fortu- 
nately, one of good will. Ill will is the result of a dis- 
ordered or diseased state of mind with reference to 
others. 

This diseased state, in turn, may result either from 
internal or external causes, and more frequently, per- 
haps, from a combination of both. 

Health of mind, like health of body, depends upon 
the nature and the proper combination and proper 
functioning of the elements which compose it. 

The main argument which has been advanced in 
this discussion may be summed up in a few sentences. 

Emotions are of two classes : First, those which are 
designed to foster and promote the instinctive acts 
which are useful and beneficial to our well being and 
perpetuity of the species. These are characterized by 
pleasure in their normal functions. Second, those emo- 



LOVE, FEAR, HATE 87 

tions which are designed to foster and promote those 
instinctive acts which tend to preservation from injur} 7 
and harm by the hurtful forces in our environment. 
These may upon occasion in their purely instinctive 
form be as useful as the former. But even in this 
elementary form they are katabolic in character, and 
tend to the disintegration and destruction of the organ- 
ism and are accordingly accompanied by discomfort and 
even pain. When allowed to become frequent or per- 
manent in the experience of the organism the result is 
an impairment and disarrangement of all the vital func- 
tions both physical and psychical, by reason of the kata- 
bolism which accompanies them. 

To the first class belongs love, which has been com- 
mended in this discussion ; and to the second class belong 
fear and hate. 

The wise woman, the ideal woman, will "love deep- 
ly, fear nothing, hate never." 



CHAPTER VI 

Freedom thru the Truth 

"To enjoy that freedom which comes from knowledge of the 
truth/ > 

I once heard a story of a man who had fallen over a 
precipice and by good luck had managed to catch hold 
of a swinging vine, and he was holding on to the vine 
for dear life. He could not see below him, but he knew 
that the precipice was very high and that a drop to 
the bottom meant instant death. He did not have the 
strength to pull himself up and the length of the vine 
did not admit of lowering himself further. His strength 
was fast ebbing away and he did not feel that he could 
maintain his hold another minute. Just then he heard 
a voice near him say, "you are just above a projecting 
ledge, turn loose the vine." He was just six inches 
above the ledge which he could not see, but he turned 
loose the vine and immediately felt the solid rock be- 
neath him. Knowledge of the truth had made him free 
— physically free. 

For long ages the human race was dominated by 
the idea that certain men were born to rule. They 
meekly bowed their necks, and kings and emperors and 
czars placed their yokes upon them. The masses toiled 
and slaved and obeyed and suffered, while the rulers 
and nobles luxuriated in ease and fattened upon the 
miseries of the people. 

88 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 89 

It is less than two hundred years since the voice 
of America speaking thru Thomas Jefferson proclaimed 
that eternal truth, "all men are born free and equal," 
and this truth has made humanity socially and politi- 
cally free. Humanity had been waiting through all 
the weary ages for America to tell them what political 
and social freedom is. 

There is, however, no such thing as absolute free- 
dom in human existence. 

If it were possible to conceive of a being who could 
exist absolutely independent of all relations, both ma- 
terial and spiritual, then and then only would it be pos- 
sible to conceive of absolute freedom. The conception 
of God in his primeval state, before the dawn of crea- 
tion, most nearly approaches this absolute independence 
and consequent absolute freedom. 

But when the Omnipotent and Eternal One of His 
own volition by His creative "fiat" set in motion the 
great cosmic processes, whereby the universe of matter 
and mind came into existence, then by the same voli- 
tional act He laid down His sceptre of absolute freedom, 
and assumed a relation to all created things which even 
Deity may not violate. 

Freedom to violate law involves a contradiction of 
ideas. 

The highest type of freedom is that which is se- 
cured by a perfect knowledge of and absolute obedience 
to law. 

For purposes of illustration, let us consider the 
freedom enjoyed by any average good citizen of our 
community. Our national, state and municipal govern- 



90 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

ments have put upon the statute books certain laws de- 
fining the obligations and rights of citizens in relation 
to each other and also the relations of each citizen to the 
whole group, or to the government itself. 

Does the freedom of each individual citizen con- 
sist in the liberty to violate any or all of these laws? 
By no means. On the contrary, the surest way of los- 
ing his freedom would be the violation of them. The 
citizen is free only so long as he lives in accordance 
with the laws of his country. 

Moreover, one of the most firmly established prin- 
ciples of government, and of the courts which administer 
the laws, is the rule that "ignorance of the law excuses 
no man." So long as a man is ignorant of the law he 
is liable to violate the law thru inadvertence, and thus 
thru ignorance his freedom is constantly in jeopardy. 
It is only when he has acquired a thorough knowledge 
of the law that his freedom becomes secure. 

Knowledge of the law not only has this negative 
value of preventing inadvertent and unconscious viola- 
tions, but it also has a more positive value. 

Thorough knowledge of the law involves the com- 
prehension of its causes and consequenses — the justifi- 
cation for its existence and the more remote penalties 
for its violation. Assuming then that the laws are justly 
founded and that the penalties are wisely balanced, it 
follows that a thorough knowledge of them will afford 
the surest incentive to the normal human being to live 
in accordance with them. When thoroughly convinced 
that a particular law is for the good of society and 
therefore ultimately for his own good, as an integral 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 91 

part of society, the normal individual will be inclined 
to support the law. 

Upon this foundation might be developed one of 
the strongest arguments for public, universal education, 
not necessarily, certainly not merely, the current com- 
mon school education, nor even the current high school 
and college education, but an education which will re- 
veal to the citizen the basic principles on which our gov- 
ernments are founded and by which our laws are justi- 
fied. For full and complete obedience to our laws will 
be secured only upon two prime conditions, viz., first, 
that these laws shall be justly founded and, second, 
that they shall be adequately understood. And it ought 
to be the duty of the state through its schools to see 
that every citizen shall know and understand the funda- 
mental laws under which he must live. 

No adequate conception of the real nature of the 
problem of human freedom can be gained until it is 
realized that every man has definite relations to every 
other man on the globe ; that his obligations are just as 
broad and far reaching. 

It is doubtless true, altho it be only infinitesimal in 
degree, that the faltering footfall of the toddling infant 
alters the centre of gravity of the earth, and to that 
degree affects the equilibrium of every creature on it. 

However far removed such a theoretical speculation 
may be from the practical concerns of human life, it 
may well serve as a point of departure for more practi- 
cal considerations. 

If a baby step in China alters my equilibrium in 
America, how vastly important to me must be the ob- 



92 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

jects, material and spiritual, in my immediate environ- 
ment. 

Man is indeed a creature of infinite relations. 
Forces extend from him to all other created things ; and 
in turn he is operated upon, in greater or less degree, by 
forces emanating from every other created thing. 

If freedom consisted in absolute independence of 
relations then indeed were man the furthest possible 
removed from freedom, on account of this infinitude of 
relations. 

Freedom on the contrary consists in the most per- 
fect possible adaptation of an individual to all possible 
relations. These relations are usually expressed in terms 
of laws, and it is consequently through the knowledge 
of and obedience to law that freedom is secured. 

Man is subject to the laws of the physical, the social 
and the spiritual realms, and knowledge of and obedi- 
ence to these laws secures for him the largest freedom. 

Physical freedom does not consist in liberty to dis- 
regard physical laws. Freedom of movement, for in- 
stance, does not mean that you can disregard the law of 
gravity and walk off a precipice on the air, without harm. 

But it is by conforming to the law of gravity that 
you are made free in your movements, and an increasing 
knowledge of the law of gravity is increasing our ability 
to conform to its principles and accordingly increasing 
our freedom of movement. 

It is within the memory of many men who are still 
living that the most rapid movement of which man was 
capable was just a few miles an hour. To-day, as a result 
of a better knowledge of the law of gravity, and of steam, 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 93 

electricity, etc., a speed of seventy-five and even more 
than a hundred miles may be attained. 

It is within the memory of most of us that the 
movement of man was limited to the surface of the earth 
and sea. Today as a result of the more adequate knowl- 
edge of this same law of gravity and of other physical 
laws, our submarines explore old ocean's depths and our 
airships dart hither and yon upon the invisible and 
tenuous air. 

Man no longer regards the laws of nature as his 
enemies, nor considers them as master and himself slave. 
On the contrary they are his friends, yea even his 
servants, and his highest physical freedom is in pro- 
portion as he understands and utilizes them. 

Social freedom does not consist of liberty to disre- 
gard social laws. 

The laws of society, unfortunately, are not so per- 
fect as the laws of the physical world — the laws of 
nature. This is one of the reasons why we find that the 
laws of society have been changing from age to age and 
also vary among the different peoples who inhabit the 
globe in any age. The laws and social customs of the 
first century differ rather radically from the laws and 
social customs of the twentieth century; the laws and 
social customs of Gainesville, Ga., differ rather radically 
from the laws and social customs of Hong Kong, China, 
today. 

In spite of these variations in law and customs, it 
remains true that the greatest liberty of any individual 
is secured by the most careful conformity to the laws 
and customs of his age or of his social environment. 



94 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

Take, for example, such a simple matter as the law 
regulating traffic. In Gainesville, and universally in 
our country, the traffic laws require that you shall drive 
to the right in meeting another vehicle. If you disre- 
gard this law your freedom of movement will be very 
greatly restricted, and if any trouble results from your 
carelessness of the law, you are liable to arrest and 
punishment — your freedom thereby being further cur- 
tailed. In England the traffic laws would require you 
to do just the opposite, viz., to drive to the left, and 
your greatest liberty there in the matter of freedom 
of movement would be attained by still conforming to 
law, but doing just the opposite of what is required of 
you here. 

The laws of any given age or community are a sort 
of resultant or compromise between the various ideals 
or opinions of the people. These laws are never as per- 
fect as they would be if merely an expression of the 
ideals of the best people; nor are they so imperfect as 
they would be if merely an expression of the opinions 
and impulses of the worst. 

It happens sometimes, however, that the bad ele- 
ment in a community, or in a state, assumes control of 
the law making bodies, and that laws are made which 
are utterly at variance with the ideals of the better 
classes. When such laws violate essential rights, or are 
antagonistic to moral principles, it may become the duty 
of a good citizen to oppose the law and even to sacrifice 
liberty or even life itself. It is under such circum- 
stances as these that revolutions are born and even 
justified* 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 95 

It will be seen, therefore, that individual social 
freedom is not always the highest end. When freedom 
is purchased at the expense of the rights and liberties 
of our fellow men, its enjoyment, which ordinarily is 
characteristic of genuine manhood, becomes a mark of 
cowardice. The thief who luxuriates in his pilfered 
wealth is not so mean in spirit nor so devoid of character 
as the man, be he ruler or plain citizen, who has ac- 
quired privileges at the expense of his fellows. 

The highest ideal of social freedom is that which 
allows to the largest number the greatest liberty. In 
the very nature of the case, such freedom cannot be 
absolute. The right of freedom of every man is neces- 
sarily limited by the identical right of every other man 
whose interests are in any way related. As a citizen 
of this community I ought to have the right to do any- 
thing I choose in my own house ; but only on condition 
that I shall not choose to do anything which will injure 
or annoy my neighbor. Just as soon as I fail to re- 
cognize this principle and engage in some pursuit which 
injures or annoys my neighbor, the law crosses my 
threshold and says "thou shalt not" and thereby limits 
my freedom. 

But no just law ever restricts the freedom of the 
man who does not will to violate the law. The law 
which says "thou shalt not steal" has never limited the 
freedom of any honest man. He does not desire to 
steal and would not if all the laws against theft were 
wiped off the statute books. 

The laws of society, therefore, when rightly con- 
sidered, do not limit, but rather protect and enlarge 



96 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

the liberties of the people. And he is most free who 
best understands and most implicitly obeys these laws. 

Spiritual freedom is likewise conditioned upon a 
knowledge of and conformity to law — the law of the 
spiritual world. 

The spiritual world is the world of ideals, of eter- 
nal principles; its laws deal with our relations to these 
eternal principles. It is possible for a man to be physi- 
cally free because he understands the laws of the ma- 
terial world, and to be socially free because he knows 
and abides by the laws of his country, but at the same 
time to be a slave to the "law of sin and death," 
because he does not understand and is antagonistic to 
the laws of the spiritual world. 

These laws may be variously stated, but they are 
best comprehended under the terms faith, hope, love. 
Faith is the substance or foundation of hope, and love 
is at once the culmination and the reward of both. 
Faith foretells the good in all things ; hope appropriates 
its benefits to the individual being, and love thrills the 
soul with that joy which belongs alone to them who are 
in harmony with the Divine Soul which governs the 
universe. 

The slavery of ignorance has wrought its most 
blighting influence upon man's spiritual nature. Super- 
stition in diverse forms has flourished in all periods of 
history and among all races of men. Indeed, in the 
early history of the race it would be difficult to dis- 
tinguish between superstition and religion, so com- 
pletely was the latter permeated and dominated by the 
former. 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 97 

The evil effects of superstition are so generally 
known that we need not dwell at any great length upon 
them. Gods of all kinds, good and ill disposed, sacri- 
fices of beasts and even men to minister to their pride 
or appease their anger, torture of one's own body and 
humiliation of spirit — these w r ere some of the fruits 
of superstition. 

The coming of Jesus into the world, his wise say- 
ings, his contempt for hypocrisy and sham, his simple 
life, his beautiful spirit was the beginning of the down- 
fall of superstition. It was indeed he who uttered the 
words upon which this address is based: "Ye shall 
know the truth and the truth shall make you free." 
But, alas, superstition had such a hold upon the mind 
of humanity that it soon renewed its influence even 
among Christians and we find in the so called apocrypha 
accounts of some wonderful but more frequently absurd 
acts of Jesus himself, which in their appeal to the 
credulity of mankind, rival the most pagan supersti- 
tion. In honor of the unpretentious Man of Gallilee, 
who had not where to lay his head were developed 
elaborate rites and ceremonies to appeal to the imagina- 
tion and inspire faith. He who did not hesitate to ex- 
press his contempt for the sham and hypocrisy of those 
who made long prayers in the streets and in the public 
places, and who worshipped according to set forms, was 
himself made the central figure in the most elaborate 
and gorgeous ceremonial forms of which we have any 
knowledge. 

Not only so, but this same superstition — the curse 
of ignorance, mother of fear, created charms and talis- 



98 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

mans out of the cross, the garments of Jesus, and of 
those associated with him; and relics of one sort and 
another, still believed by the ignorant to have magical 
charm, may be found in Christian churches in nearly 
every old city of continental Europe today. These and 
innumerable superstitions spread their blighting influ- 
ence through Christianity itself in the first several 
hundred years of our era. The consequence is that the 
history of Christianity itself is stained with the crimes 
of its followers, committed in the name of the meek 
and lowly Nazarene. 

Take as an illustration of the blindness and also 
the unreasoning cruelty of superstition the well au- 
thenticated facts of the supposed appearance of blood 
upon the holy sacrament. In 1264 and again in 1383 
what were supposed to be drops of blood were found 
upon the bread composing the holy sacrament as it lay 
upon the altar. In 1510-38, Jews were burned to 
death because it was claimed they had tortured the 
consecrated host (the body of Christ) until it bled. The 
proof of this was the appearance of the blood. The 
bloody spots were noticed again in 1824 in a city on the 
Moselle river; but it was not until 1848 that a learned 
chemist, Ehrenberg by name, declared on the authority 
of his microscope that the red stains found on the bread, 
cheese, potatoes and on the consecrated host, were 
merely due to countless insects, microscopic in size, and 
thus the truth revealed by the microscope had freed 
mankind from the despotism of one more superstition — 
a superstition which had deprived human beings not 
only of freedom, but of life itself. 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 99 

The forms which superstition has assumed in the 
past are almost innumerable. Any good Encyclopedia 
will furnish you a list and details covering many pages. 
A few names will suggest some of the horrors and many 
of the absurdities which history records. Among them 
may be named Ghosts, Spectres, Apparitions, Elves, 
Fairies, Genii; in a somewhat different category are 
Sorcery, Magic, "Witchcraft, Demonism, Incantation, 
Possession, Divination, Seers, Oracles, Ordeal, Man- 
drake, Necromancy, Horoscope, Astrology, Mascot, 
Talisman, Amulet, Sortilege, Lycanthropy and many 
others. 

A striking example of the baneful effect of super- 
stition upon genuine spiritual life and even upon moral- 
ity is an instance which occurred within my own knowl- 
edge in one of the oldest and most renowned university 
towns in Germany. While a student there, I lived in 
the home of an old lady, Frau Holzapfel by name. She 
belonged to the middle classes, her husband being book- 
keeper of a manufacturing establishment, and they 
were in comfortable circumstances. 

She usually had one or two student roomers in her 
home, and while I was there she told me, without any 
apparent embarrassment, the following story: Several 
years before my acquaintance with the family, a young 
boy had been placed in her charge by an official of the 
government, whose duties kept him in one of the remote 
provinces of Germany. This gentleman was very anxi- 
ous for his son to succeed as a student in order that he 
might take the civil service examination and thus quali- 
fy himself to become a government official also. The 



100 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

father had exacted from Frau Holzapfel many promises 
of careful oversight, and from the boy promises of 
diligence in study; for the boy's whole future career 
depended upon his ability to take the civil service exami- 
nation, which in Germany is no trivial matter. 

The time was near at hand for the momentous 
examination, and Frau Holzapfel was anxiously ques- 
tioning the boy concerning his readiness for the test. 
The boy was quite uneasy and finally confessed that he 
was utterly unprepared on one of the subjects and felt 
sure he would fail. Frau Holzapfel was much disturbed 
over this prospect and told the boy that it simply would 
not do, that his future career depended upon his success. 

In her vigorous German way she decided to take 
the bull by the horn, as it were, and see that the boy 
passed the examination at all costs. She instructed him, 
as soon as he could, after beginning the examination 
which was to last the entire day, to copy the questions 
on the subject which he feared, and to contrive to leave 
the examination room for a few minutes bringing the 
questions with him. She instructed him where to leave 
them, by a certain piece of statuary in the hallway. 

At the appointed time she took up a position in the 
building where she could watch the hallway, and waited 
patiently for the boy. He followed instructions, left 
the paper at the appointed place, and returned to the 
examination room with the understanding that he was 
to return to the hallway again at the end of four hours 
for the answers. 

In the meantime Frau Holzapfel hurried with the 
questions to a tutor in the subject whom she had previ- 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 101 

ously engaged, and for the two hours that the tutor 
was busy writing out the answers to the questions, she 
sat in a secluded nook in a little park in front of the 
house, praying fervently all the while to the Virgin 
Mary that she would lend her assistance to the enter- 
prise. She promised the Virgin, moreover, that if the 
enterprise did succeed, she would take the boy on three 
successive mornings to early morning mass at the chapel 
dedicated to the Virgin and located on a lofty hill over- 
looking the city, some two miles from her home. 

The enterprise did succeed, and true to her promise 
she got up at five o'clock the next morning to make the 
pilgrimage to the "Marienkappelle." She went to 
aw T aken the boy, and "do you know," said she in much 
disgust, "the little rascal didn't want to go, and I had 
to take him by the nape of the neck and make him go.' 7 

This is not an extreme instance of the effect of 
superstition upon the character and conduct of men 
and women throughout all the ages of human history. 
Ignorance on the one hand of the eternal principles of 
truth and righteousness, and on the other hand a blind 
faith in some magical charm or some mystical influence 
which somehow is potent and ready to abrogate these 
principles and suspend even the laws of the material 
world to gratify the whim or caprice or fancied need of 
the devoted, have been the dominant characteristics of 
all superstitions and have corrupted religion itself. 

It will be only when religion is cleansed of such 
superstitions that humanity shall attain unto a knowl- 
edge of that truth which shall make men free from the 
law of sin and death. 



102 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

One of the striking facts about superstition is the 
inclusion of all ages and conditions of men under its 
influence. Socrates, reputed the wisest of men believed 
implicitly in a daemon or spirit, which was a preceptor 
or monitor who gave him counsel, advice and assistance 
in all the crises of his life. Plutarch, Apuleius and 
Cicero all composed separate treatises on this daemon 
of Socrates. Alexander became terrified at the sight 
of blood appearing inside the soldiers' bread during the 
siege of Tyre in 332 B. C. Luther and hundreds of 
other Christian leaders believed in witches, and Luther 
even claimed to have hurled his inkstand at his Satanic 
majesty, the ink spot being exhibited to visitors for 
many years. 

Such instances, and they are almost innumerable, 
of superstition exerting its influence upon men who are 
known to be learned, may well raise the question as to 
whether or not we may look to knowledge to free hu- 
manity from superstition, and guarantee that freedom 
which is the topic of this discussion. 

If Socrates and other wise men have been bound 
by superstition, can it be true that knowledge of truth 
offers the surest path to freedom? 

In answer to this question it should be pointed out 
that knowledge is a relative matter. Knowledge always 
involves a subject knowing and an object known. 
Truth is a correct statement of the relation between 
subject and object. It is equally important also to point 
out the fact that there are many individual relations or 
truths, and many groups or spheres of relations, or 
spheres of truth ; and that knowledge of one individual 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 103 

relation or truth does not necessarily involve a knowl- 
edge of other groups or spheres of relations or truths. 

For example, a man may be very learned in the law 
and have practically no knowledge of chemistry. In 
a company of lawyers he would pass readily for a wise 
man; in a company of chemists he would be either a 
nonentity or a fool accordingly as he remained silent or 
tried to take part in the discussions. 

Great learning in Chemistry or in Psychology gives 
a man no right to an opinion on matters concerning the 
law or religion except in so far as the former may be 
related to the latter; nor could the religionist or the 
lawyer be accepted as an authority in the matter of 
Chemistry and Psychology. 

It is probably true that all of the great spheres of 
truth are more directly connected and dependent, the 
one upon the other, than our present limited knowledge 
enables us to see. But for the present we need not be 
surprised when any man reputed to be wise in one 
sphere of truth makes an egregious spectacle of him- 
self when he essays to shine in another. 

Socrates was a master of dialectic and of the phi- 
losophy of his time, but he evidently knew little about 
the spirit world; William Jennings Bryan is a past 
master in the arts and sciences of politics, but if in 
the light of subsequent monetary development, one were 
to read his solution of the money question as offered 
twenty years ago, one might conclude that he was as 
unlearned as Socrates was superstitious; Henry Ford 
is perhaps the wisest man in the automobile or any other 
industry, but is apparently as ignorant as any of us 



104 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

concerning the problems involved in the European war 
and certainly was never intended to be captain of a 
peace ship. 

As a material creature of flesh and blood man is 
subject to all of the laws of the material universe; as 
a social being he is subject to the laws of society; and 
as a spiritual entity he is subject to the laws of the 
spiritual world; and his highest freedom depends upon 
his knowledge of the laws of all three spheres of his 
being and his proper co-ordination of them. 

In the present imperfect state of our knowledge it 
sometimes appears that the three systems of law clash, 
the one with the other. Sometimes it seems that the 
laws of our physical nature are out of harmony with 
the laws of society or of the spiritual nature. The so- 
cial derelict, starving for bread, reaches out his hand 
for the loaf to satisfy the law of his physical being, and 
society sternly says "thou shalt not steal;" the spiritual 
enthusiast, aflame with zeal to save the world trans- 
gresses the laws of his physical and nervous being, and 
inexorable nature enforces her laws and the zealot be- 
comes a physical and possibly even a moral wreck. 

In the former case the material and physical de- 
mands of nature seem to transgress the moral and 
spiritual law; in the latter case spiritual zeal trans- 
gresses the physical law. 

When men come to know the truth in all of its 
fullness there will be no poverty, because poverty means 
not only that some one has less than he ought to have, 
but also that some other one has more than he ought to 
have. When such inequalities cease, there will be no 



FREEDOM THRU THE TRUTH 105 

clash between the demands of physical nature and the 
laws of the moral and spiritual world. 

Again, when men come to know the truth in all of 
its fullness there will be no religious fanaticism and 
consequently no clash of the religious nature against 
the stern and inexorable laws of the physical and nerv- 
ous being. 

It is by such processes as these, the sometimes pain- 
ful processes of experience, that the race is gradually 
learning the truth, that sublime and eternal truth which 
will indeed ultimately make men free — free to enjoy 
the blessings of perfect physical life in a perfected ma- 
terial world, free to enjoy all the benefits of cooperation 
and association, which is possible only when all men 
know and obey the social law, and finally free to enjoy 
full and complete communion and fellowship with the 
eternal spirit which pervades the universe, " which to 
know is life eternal" — even everlasting freedom. 



CHAPTER VII 

The Limitations of Knowledge 

"Modestly conscious of the limitations of human knowledge 
and serenely confident of the limitless reaches of human 
achievement. ? ? 



4 4 y f the devil should come to London I would teach 
A him his ABC 's, for he would be less of a devil 
for knowing them." In this striking way Thomas 
Carlyle expressed his estimate of the function of knowl- 
edge, which is to make men better and more useful in 
the world. 

Lord Bacon in a more direct, but none the less 
striking way, expressed his estimate of knowledge in 
the well known aphorism "knowledge is power." With 
the proper interpretation, no one will gainsay this state- 
ment. Man has grown in power over his environment 
in direct proportion as he has grown in knowledge. 
But it is only in this specialized sense that the state- 
ment is true. It is only knowledge which is alive, active 
in the mind of man that is powerful. Knowledge locked 
up in some dusty volume in some deserted library is 
useless; but not more so than that which is locked up 
in the mind of some man or woman who has caught no 
vision of opportunity, and has been inspired by no spirit 
of service. 

And so it happens that others, with no less reason 
106 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 107 

than Carlyle and Bacon, but looking at knowledge from 
this different standpoint have arrived at a more pessi- 
mistic conclusion. 

Socrates, disgusted with the vain speculations of 
philosophy, and keen enough to see some aspects of the 
limitations of knowledge expressed his view in the well 
known paradox, "he is wisest who knows that he knows 
nothing. ' ' 

Goethe has given this pessimistic aspect of knowl- 
edge its highest literary expression in the familiar lines 
of Faust: 

I have studied, alas, Philosophy 
And Jurisprudence and Medicine too 
And saddest of all, Theology, 
With ardent labor thru and thru 
And here I stick, as wise, poor fool, 
As when my steps first turned to school. 

Such pessimistic outbursts, by no means uncommon, 
even in the present era of knowledge, are the laments 
of discontented spirits who have sought to find in mere 
knowledge the panacea for all the ills of humanity, and 
have failed to realize that knowledge is a mere instru- 
ment for accomplishing a given end, and as a mere pos- 
session is disappointing if not absolutely valueless. 

In order to arrive at a true estimate of knowledge, 
it were well to consider its limitations and in doing so 
it is my hope that we may arrive at some conclusions 
concerning its nature and its proper function. 

It is in no pessimistic mood that I come to discuss 
the limitations of knowledge. I do not share the hope- 



108 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

lessness of the ancient philosopher which found its only 
relief in blank, empty contemplation of the unknowable ; 
nor do I share the impatient discontent of Faust which 
drove him into magic and mysticism and ultimate 
despair. 

Human knowledge is limited by human nature — 
not merely because humanity is imperfect, but because 
all knowledge involves two factors, the object and sub- 
ject, the object known and the subject knowing. 

The form of knowledge is conditioned upon the 
spatial and temporal nature of humanity ; the substance 
of knowledge is conditioned upon the nervous or sensa- 
tional nature of humanity. 

Let us consider this last phase of knowledge first. 
It is an unquestioned fact that we can know nothing 
about the qualities of the material world except by 
means of information that comes to us thru the human 
senses. These senses are ordinarily reckoned as five. 
There has been much speculation as to whether or not 
a race of beings were possible who might have more 
than five senses. Voltaire, in one of his imaginative 
philosophical treatises, tells of a visit of one of his 
characters to another world where he found beings pos- 
sessed of seventy senses. When he marveled at this 
one of these beings told him of still other beings in a 
far distant planetary system who had as many as seven 
hundred senses. It is very clear that a being who had 
seven hundred or even seventy senses would have far 
more information about the objects in his environment 
than the poor, limited creature who had only five as 
man has. 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 109 

It is of course manifest that man, having only five 
senses, cannot even conceive of what other senses would 
be like, and it is even more impossible to conceive of 
qualities which might be perceived through them. Man's 
knowledge of his material environment is limited, there- 
fore, to information which he derives thru his limited 
number of senses. 

It is not only true that the number of senses is 
limited, but each sense is quite limited in its range. For 
example, by means of the sense of hearing, man is able 
to detect certain vibrations in the air which surrounds 
him. These vibrations strike upon the delicate mechan- 
ism of the ear in the form of waves and man has the 
experience which he calls sound. These sound waves 
have been carefully and accurately measured by the 
physicist. The tones, for instance, employed in music 
range from about forty vibrations per second to about 
four thousand per second, while it has been found that 
the lowest limit of tone perception is about sixteen and 
the highest limit about fifty thousand vibrations per 
second. 

This means that when the air vibrates less than six- 
teen vibrations per second the tone cannot be heard, and 
if the air vibrates more than fifty thousand times per 
second it is likewise inaudible. 

Man's knowledge of tone, therefore, is limited by 
the inability of the delicate mechanism of the ear to 
respond to vibrations either below or above the number 
indicated. In other words, his knowledge is limited by 
his nature. 

What has just been shown to be true of the sense 
of sound is also true of all the other senses — thev are 



110 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

limited in their range, and stimuli which in intensity are 
either below or above a certain limit cannot be sensed, 
or in other words, cannot be known. 

Another very illuminating speculation was indulged 
in, first by the so called schoolmen, in the early middle 
ages. Suppose, said they, that a tree falls far out in 
the forest remote from man and even from beast and 
bird, so that the air waves set in motion by the fall of 
the tree never reach the ear of man or beast or bird, 
would there be any sound in the forest? 

Sometime ago this question w r as propounded to his 
pupils by a village schoolmaster and when he answered 
his own question in the negative his correctness was so 
violently contested by one of the older boys that it result- 
ed in a fight between master and pupil. As a result the 
whole town was aroused by the problem and the major- 
ity of the villagers sided with the boy. A lady from the 
village who appealed to me to settle the dispute was very 
much chagrined when I decided in favor of the school- 
master. 

It is unquestionably true that the air waves set in 
motion by the tree are not translated into what we know 
as sound until they strike upon the ear. Sound, as we 
know it, is a human experience and the nature of the ear 
mechanism and of the other human elements has just as 
much, and perhaps more, to do with the essential nature 
of the experience as the sound vibrations. 

The same principle obtains within the domain of all 
of the other senses. As an additional illustration, take 
the phenomena of color and in particular of so called 
color blindness. Leaving aside purely technical consid- 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 111 

erations, color is perceived by the normal individual as a 
sort of band, starting with the deepest red and gradually, 
almost imperceptibly changing in tint from orange, yel- 
low, green, blue, indigo and finally to the palest violet. 
These colors, as is well known, are produced by different 
waves of light through the hypothetical ether. These waves 
vary in length and rapidity of undulation, the longest 
waves and slowest undulation corresponding to red and 
the shortest waves and most rapid undulation correspond- 
ing to violet. Now it is a well-known fact that certain per- 
sons are partially color blind — that is they cannot distin- 
guish certain colors. Red to such a person may not appear 
as red at all but as dark gray, or it may even be confused 
with green. The significance of this for our purpose is 
merely the fact that the nature of the seeing mechanism 
limits the perception of color. This is just as true when 
we can see normally, but it appears more evident when 
some defect in the mechanism alters the nature and con- 
tent of the perception. 

Innumerable similar instances in the domain of each 
of the sense organs might be adduced, but these will 
doubtless suffice to show that our knowledge of the quali- 
ties of the external world is merely a knowledge of the 
effects which these external objects produce on the pe- 
culiar physical mechanism with which man is endowed 
by nature. 

As another illustration consider the different tones 
in a great pipe organ. It is the same air in the bellows 
and it may be released by the same key on the console, 
but if this air vibrate now the diapason and presently 
the flute pipes, you get two very different effects. The 



112 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

air is the same, the key on the console is the same, but 
the nature of the diapason pipe is one thing and the 
nature of the flute pipe another thing ; hence the different 
result. 

The content or substance of man's knowledge is al- 
ways a product of certain external objects or forces 
operating upon his own knowing faculties, and the real 
nature of this product is determined by the nature of the 
knowing faculties as well as by the nature of the exter- 
nal objects. 

It was noted in the beginning that the form of man 's 
knowledge is limited by his spatial and temporal nature. 
It may be well to illustrate for you the difference be- 
tween form and content or substance. 

The form of a globe is round, and its size can be 
definitely measured in inches or feet ; its substance may 
vary without altering the form — it may be glass or 
metal or paper or stone or any one of numerous other 
substances. 

Now knowledge in so far as its content or substance 
is concerned is almost infinite in variety and is only 
limited by the nature and capacity of the senses, which in 
the last analysis furnish the material or substances out 
of which knowledge is formed. 

The form, however, into which this crude material 
is invariably cast has invariably two characteristics, first, 
it is spatial and, second, it is temporal. 

By spatial we mean that it has the characteristics 
of space, viz; extension, or length, breadth and thick- 
ness ; by temporal we mean that it has the characteristics 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 113 

of time, a beginning, a continuance so to speak, and fin- 
ally an end. 

Let us first consider space and spatial limitations of 
knowledge. 

Space to the naive, childlike mind is an elemental 
fact. To the child or to the childlike mind any question 
concerning the validity of our space perceptions would 
doubtless be either unintelligible or absurd. "We have 
never conceived of anything which did not have exten- 
sion, that is, fill space ; we cannot conceive of anything 
which does not have spatial form : therefore everything 
must have spatial form. 

This is good inductive reasoning, and is identically 
the same kind of logic upon which the whole structure 
of human knowledge is based. It is good practical reas- 
oning; it works, as the pragmatist is wont to say. You 
can safely go ahead and plan your life in this world in 
accordance with it, for it is quite as certain as anything 
in human experience. 

But having conceded this much, it remains true that 
these conclusions are based finally upon human experi- 
ence, which itself is conditioned upon the human nature 
which is the subject of the experience, just as 'much as 
upon the spatial phenomena which are the objects of 
experience. 

The question, then finally arises: Are all these ob- 
jects in the world of my experience extended in form 
because they actually are so, or because it is my nature to 
conceive them so? In other words is space essentially 
tri-dimensional or does it merely appear tri-dimensional 
to me because of mv nature. 



114 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

Space as we know it has three dimensions — length, 
breadth and thickness. No man has ever been able to 
conceive of the actual nature of a fourth dimension of 
space, but the possibility of a fourth dimension has been 
frequently suggested. 

The spiritualists, for instance, have suggested a 
fourth dimension as the means by which spirits are sup- 
posed to be able to enter rooms which are locked. The 
biblical account of Jesus appearing in a closed room to 
his disciples after his crucifixion, would be explained by 
the spiritualists in this way. 

It will be easier for you to conceive of this pos- 
sibility, if for a moment you will imagine that space has 
only two dimensions. A room in such a world would 
have no floor or ceiling, but merely walls, and the walls 
would have no height. In other words, all things, in- 
cluding the living beings in such a world would be ab- 
solutely flat. There would be no roof to the house, but 
still a creature in such a world could only get into the 
house through the door in the side because to such a crea- 
ture there would be no ceiling or floor. But let us sup- 
pose that a creature from a world of three dimensions, 
who had height, suddenly appeared in this tri-dimen- 
sional world. It would be very easy for this tri-dimen- 
sional creature to step into the bi-dimensional room from 
above, and it would be utterly impossible for the bi-di- 
mensional creature to understand how it was done. 

So it is, say the believers in the fourth dimension, 
in the spirit world. We are unable to understand how a 
spirit can walk into a closed room because our world has 
only three dimensions, but the spirit world, the real 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 115 

world, has four or perhaps more dimensions, and it is 
through this fourth or other dimension that the spirit 
can appear in a closed room to the astonishment and con- 
sternation of mere mortals. 

Such speculations have little value except perhaps 
to illustrate the impossibility of really conceiving or 
knowing anything beyond the range, actual or possible, 
of human experience ; and it is of the highest value that 
we know what is really impossible. 

It appears then that all knowledge of the external 
world is cast in a spatial form. The suggestion is of- 
fered that the ultimate reason for this lies in the fact 
that man himself is a tri-dimensional being. It may be 
objected that man is a tri-dimensional being because he 
is part of a tri-dimensional world. 

But in either case it remains true that so long as 
man is a tri-dimensional being it is impossible for him to 
know any other world than a tri-dimensional world, and 
his knowledge therefore is limited, by his own nature, to 
tri-dimensional forms. 

Time, since Immanuel Kant, has also been regarded 
as a form in which perceptions are cast. 

The Scripture teaches us that God is — yesterday, 
today and forever, which means of course that time as 
we know it is a product of our own experience, condi- 
tioned again upon our human nature. We read such 
language as I have quoted in the Scripture and it has 
very little meaning for us. We try to paraphrase it in 
various ways, but we are immediately involved in con- 
tradiction. We speak for example of an " eternal now, ' ' 



116 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

but now would have no meaning if you annihilate the 
past and the future. 

Moreover while we may play with words in the ef- 
fort to express the concept, as a matter of fact it is im- 
possible for anyone really to conceive of a "now" which 
had no beginning. We are accustomed very glibly to 
speak of God as existing from everlasting to everlasting, 
but the child's question, "Who made God," is ever re- 
curring and insistent. Why? Because man is a tem- 
poral being; he had a beginning, and looks forward to 
an end, and it is impossible for him to have a really non- 
temporal conception. 

It is immaterial whether time is an ultimate reality 
or not. It may be merely a way in which man perceives 
events, growing out of the fact that his own nature is 
temporal; or it may be that his nature is temporal be- 
cause he lives in a temporal world. In either case his 
knowledge is absolutely limited by his temporal nature. 
It must necessarily be cast in temporal forms. 

If I have succeeded at all in impressing you with 
my viewpoint it is doubtless clear that knowledge is not 
a static system of principles and rules and phrases and 
figures, but knowledge is humanity at work — at work 
thinking and planning and plowing and building and 
doing the thousand and one other things that are essen- 
tial for human happiness and well being in any and 
every age. 

The knowledge of yesterday, as knowledge, is not 
worth a bauble. It is worth while today only in so far 
as it can be taken out of yesterday and incorporated into 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 117 

the mind and brawn of today ; in which case it no longer 
belongs to yesterday, but is the property of today. 

Knowledge, like all human instruments, is imperfect, 
and frequently what is useful today is useless tomorrow. 

Human achievement, however, is not conditioned 
upon the absolute perfection of its instrument. 

The mechanic of today enjoys a thousand devices 
for the attainment of his ends which the ancient Egypt- 
ian never even dreamed of, but the splendor of the 
achievement of ancient Egypt is reflected in the Pyra- 
mids and other relics of antiquity which of their kind 
are unsurpassed by modern skill. Some of the tools have 
been replaced by modern and more perfect instruments, 
but the product resulting from the use of the old tool 
still remains. 

So it is with knowledge, which is the ultimate in- 
strument of all human achievement. A scientific book 
published twenty-five years ago is of no value today ex- 
cept as a record of the progress of knowledge. Science 
must be rewritten every day, if one would keep abreast 
with progress. 

Knowledge is limited and imperfect, but the possi- 
bilities of human achievement by means of knowledge 
are practically unlimited. 

One may realize that color, for example, has no ul- 
timate reality, or may despair of knowing what color 
really is, but like Titian and Rafael and Rubens and 
Murillo fix visions of beauty upon the canvas that will 
bring pleasure and inspiration to generations yet unborn ; 
one may realize that sound has no meaning in nature un- 
til the delicate air waves are caught up by the intricate 



118 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

mechanism of the ear, or may despair of ever knowing 
the ultimate nature of sound, and yet like Haydn and Mo- 
zart and Beethoven and Chopin dream dreams of melody 
and harmony which may be perpetuated upon the print- 
ed page or in the plastic wax of the graphophone and 
reproduced for all time to minister to the happiness and 
contentment of humanity. 

One may realize that our ideas of space are limited 
by our physical being — that space may really have 
many more than three dimensions or perhaps no dimen- 
sions at all : — but like Phidias and Michel Angelo may 
chisel with exquisite skill marvelous tri-dimensional 
forms of beauty ; great buildings of tri-dimensional form 
may be reared upward to the sky; our engineers may 
tunnel through mountains and under rivers, confident of 
the exact point from which they will emerge; with un- 
erring precision our ships may sail the seas and the aero- 
plane ride upon the wings of the wind — all obedient 
to the physical laws obtaining in what we at least think 
we know as space. 

Time may also be placed among the categories of 
perception, and successions of events may be an illusion 
growing out of the rhythm of my breathing, my heart 
beat, my growth and decay — but still I may go to bed 
with the sun and fold my hands and sleep, and antici- 
pate in dreams with joy the dawning of another day, 
which like yesterday will wax and wane and bring me 
now joy, now sorrow and anon sleep ; the historian may 
count backward the days and the years and find them 
full of deeds of heroism, of sacrifice and service, of na- 
tions born, flourishing, decaying, dead, of systems of 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 119 

philosophy and science laboriously wrought out and 
then obsolete, of religions many and gods not a few; 
the astronomer may not only look into the past and trace 
with certainty the movements of the heavenly bodies 
a million years ago, but with equal certainty describe 
their positions a million years hence; and the geologist 
may read the record of the ages in the enduring granite 
— all of these possibilities of human achievement are 
based upon the validity of the human concepts of space 
and time. 

Having realized the limitations of knowledge, we 
are best prepared to face the problem of the great "un- 
knowable" which confronts every serious minded hu- 
man being. 

Knowledge pertains to this world, to sense and time 
and space. If you would bridge the chasm between ap- 
pearance and reality, between space and infinity, be- 
tween time and eternity, you need not look for help to 
man made formulae, nor hope for explanations in terms 
of human experience — 

" Canst thou by searching find out God 

Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection, 

It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? 

Deeper than hell 

What canst thou know? 

The measure thereof is longer than the 

Earth and broader than the sea. ? ? (Job Xl-7) 

Admitting then that there are limits beyond which 
knowledge may not go, but still alive to the fact that 



120 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

there are realities in this great unknowable, what attitude 
shall we take toward these realities ? 

Shall we, like some of the ancient philosophers, 
conclude that the wisest man is he who knows that he 
knows nothing, and in lethargy and inaction await the 
great transition; or shall we like Faust defy the un- 
known powers and enter a contest with them through 
magic and incantation; or shall we like Paul "under- 
stand through faith that the worlds were formed by the 
word of God, so that things which are seen were not 
made of things which do appear.'' 

No discussion of the limitations of human knowl- 
edge can be complete which does not point to faith. 
No human soul can be content to stand upon the brink of 
the unknowable without some hope of bridging the 
dark chasm. 

' ' Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen." 

In their eagerness to substitute knowledge for faith, 
men have committed many egregious errors. The 
truth about God and eternal things cannot be stated in 
terms of human experience, and the attempt to do so has 
frequently made religion ridiculous. 

Humanity has been too much obsessed with the idea 
that knowledge is the supreme test of reality. Hence 
the boast of many a skeptic that "he will not believe 
anything he can't understand." Such a skeptic does 
not even understand the full meaning of the very words 
he uses. For when one understands a truth he does not 
need to believe; he knows. 

Faith or belief begins where knowledge stops. The 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 121 

little girl was not far wrong who defined faith as "be- 
lieving something you know ain't so." She simply 
meant that faith accepts as true realities of which human 
senses and human experience give no evidence. 

Knowledge and faith, however, never actually con- 
tradict each other. Faith transcends knowledge, and 
both are essential to the happiness and well being of a 
normal individual. 

The man who knows everything and believes noth 
ing — has no faith — is a materialist whose end can only 
be misery and despair; the man who disregards knowl- 
edge and believes everything is either a fanatic or a fool. 

Knowledge and faith are both normal functions of 
the human mind, and one need no more be ashamed of 
his faith than he is of his knowledge, provided each is 
functioning properly; on the other hand it is just as 
much reflection on the intelligence of a person to say 
that he has no faith as it is to say that he has no 
knowledge. 

The function of faith is not to give information, but 
to inspire confidence; it is not to make the realities of 
the unknown world objects of sensible perception, but 
rather subjects of human hope ; it is not to deal with the 
ordinary situations and events of human experience, but 
rather with those great crises in human life when knowl- 
edge and experience are useless, and with those realities 
which lie beyond the range of human experience. 

I would not have you undervalue knowledge, even 
with its limitations, but on this occasion, I would point 
you to one of the highest faculties of your being, faith. 

By faith, if good fortune and industry should bring 



122 PHILOSOPHICAL MEDITATIONS 

you great wealth you may be able to transmute the gold 
of commerce into the gold of character, and build for 
yourselves mansions not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens; or by faith you may see some flood or fire or 
pestilence or panic sweep away every dollar that you 
own, and arise from the wreck unabashed and unafraid. 

By faith, if good fortune and kind providence and 
common sense place you at the head of a well ordered 
home, you may transform that home into a type of 
heaven where joy and love abide; or if sickness and 
death, with devastating and unrelentless hand, break 
into the family and remove from it its dearest links, you 
may still by faith look through your tears and say : ' ' The 
Lord gave; the Lord taketh away, Blessed be the name 
of the Lord." 

By faith, if God give you to live in peaceful times, 
and you are permitted to live out your allotted time upon 
this Earth, you may approach the end with confidence 
and equanimity — and finally ' ' fold the drapery of your 
couch about you and lie down to pleasant dreams ; ' ' or if 
duty should call into some great conflict between the pow- 
ers of this earth, where great guns roar, and shot and 
shell fly thick as hail; or if perchance you are fated to 
stand upon the deck of some Titanic vessel and see it 
sink beneath the waves, conscious of the fact that it is 
carrying you with it ; or if in fire or flood or famine, you 
face the last dread enemy of man, still, thank God, by 
faith you may lift your eyes unto the hills, from whence 
cometh your help, and commit your undying and inde- 
structible spirit into the hands which gave it life, and as 
your untrammeled spirit leaves its tenement of clay the 



THE LIMITATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE 123 

glories of reality — ultimate reality, will burst upon 
you, for — 

' 'Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard; neither have 
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath 
prepared for them that love Him." 



